In such a situation, not everything could be solved. One fixes what one can. If the objects themselves remained beyond control, then at least some things could be managed. The Robertson Panel—never intended as a scientific study of UFOs—gave the sanction to remove the problem not only from the general population, but from the vast majority of military personnel. Why involve the military needlessly when it was incapable of acting and could not provide any new information on this obviously intractable problem? The matter of control became more urgent than usual, not only because of the new wave of UFO activity, but because the uncertainties of a new administration, however conservative and reliable it might be in some respects, demanded extra insurance of secrecy. From 1953 onward, the small control group that managed the UFO problem held the reins ever tighter, if such a thing were possible. For a few years, this policy of extreme secrecy met with more success than failure.
Chapter 5
Shutting the Lid: 1953 to 1956
I have discussed this matter with the affected agencies of the government, and they are of the opinion that it is not wise to publicize this matter at this time.
I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
BELOW THE SURFACE
From the perspective of later generations, the 1950s were an idyllic period in American history. Prosperity increased and even became slightly less top-heavy. America reigned unchallenged as leader of the free world, and compared to the following decade, the social order was remarkably stable. Below the surface of America’s “consensus culture,” however, the image of a nation striving for truth, justice, and the American way was contradicted by events that remained submerged, often for decades.
With an official budget exceeding $100 million by 1953, the CIA was an important part of America’s subterranean history. DCI Allen Dulles had more resources and money than Hitler’s Abwehr, the KGB, or Britain’s secret intelligence service, and none of it was accountable to Congress.1 One burgeoning area within the agency was its mind control program, renamed MK-Ultra in April 1953, and led by Sidney Gottlieb. MK-Ultra was deeply secret and recruited ethically challenged scientists to modify the behavior of people through covert chemical or biological means. The program is best known for its use of LSD, but it tried many other ways to harness the human mind, much of which was so sensitive that documentation remains scarce. Very soon, Ewen Cameron would be working for MK-Ultra. In 1953, Cameron was elected president of the American Psychiatric Association and eventually became the first president of the World Psychiatric Association. One of his goals was to treat schizophrenics by inducing complete amnesia, then to guide the patient to recall only “normal” (or selected) behaviors. He had limited success, then inflated his claims. His grisly experiments, conducted off American soil, included some that were terminal. He was a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein.2
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army secretly sprayed American cities with biological agents. From April through June, the army targeted St. Louis, as it had done previously with Minneapolis. This time, however, it tested only the black ghetto sections, and arranged for local police surveillance “to minimize the possibility of loss of equipment.” The burdens of slumming it paid dividends in secrecy. The army reported “much less public interest and curiosity” during this field test than in Minneapolis.3
