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The Condon Report is the most widely quoted UFO book ever published.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
1965 – 1966
A series of sightings in 1965 and 1966 received considerable public attention and after the poor public reception given the official explanations, the Air Force felt compelled to contract for a fifteen-month (later stretched to eighteen months) scientific study to be performed…
(UFOs: What to Do? {RAND Corporation document}, Kocher)
1966c
The American Government came under pressure in Congress.
(UFOs and How to See Them, Randles)
1966 summer
A number of scientific establishments were on the Government shortlist during 1966… It later emerged that many more prestigious scientific bodies, such as the famous MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), all turned down the chance to participate before Colorado got the contract.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
A Difficult Task for the Air Force
The Air Force did not find it easy to persuade an academic institution that it should take on such a study, which was now limited to one establishment. Those approached during the summer of 1966 were leery of the subject, feeling their scientific reputations could suffer simply by being associated with it. Eventually, the University of Colorado at Boulder agreed to take the work. The contract both protected and demanded the university’s scientific integrity:
“The work will be conducted under conditions of strictest objectivity by investigators who, as carefully as can be determined, have no predilections or preconceived positions on the UFO question. This is essential if the public, the Congress, the Executive and the scientific community are to have confidence in the study.” …
The USAF’s demand for “strictest objectivity by investigators who… have no predilections or preconceived positions on the UFO question” was, in reality, impossible to fulfil. Some kind of tension was bound to plague such a project, because there could hardly have existed a soul in the land who did not have an opinion – or predilection – of some kind about the existence of flying saucers.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
1966.08.09
There is clear evidence that the Low memorandum did form the basis of the project. He went on to become its Administrator. His memo recommended that the work should stress the psychology of UFO witnesses rather than “the old question of the physical reality of the saucer” and that, if this were done, “the scientific community would quickly get the message.” The university psychology department were given the casting vote in whether to take on the project, and a questionnaire issued to witnesses by the team was 22 pages long – just one page discussing the sighting, and 21 asking about the psychological and social background of the witness! …
Written by the University Administrator Robert Low and entitled Some Thoughts on the UFO Project, it was instrumental in persuading Colorado to go for the contract. In this devastating document Low had justified taking on the work by saying that the study “would be conducted almost exclusively by non-believers” who “could and probably would add an impressive body of evidence that there is no reality to the observations. The trick would be, I think, to describe the project so that, to the public, it would appear a totally objective study…”
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
As Low was aware, most members of the scientific community in 1966 looked askance at UFOs, and even more so at UFO beliefs – just as they do today.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
1966.10.07
The Air Force announced the agreement on 7 October 1966. The project director – whose reluctance too had to be overcome – was to be Dr Edward U Condon. The project would be co-ordinated by Assistant Dean Robert Low.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
Condon built his team with a hefty grant from taxpayers’ money. Indeed the Condon Project, which began work in October 1966 in a blaze of publicity, was extended well into the summer of 1968, with a total budget of half a million dollars, then a good deal of money.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
From the start of the two-year UFO investigation [Condon] made no secret about his lack of faith in the phenomenon.
(UFOs and How to See Them, Randles)
As the project evolved, he was particularly entertained by stories of contactees such as George Adamski and his imitators…
Condon‘s reputation for objectivity rapidly evaporated as word spread of his irreverence with regard to the subject under consideration – which extended to practical jokes. One prank led to a reception committee representing the Governor of Utah, complete with brass band, waiting several hours at the Bonneville Salt Flats racetrack for a telepathically predicted UFO landing…
Contrary to the agreement with the Air Force, several members of Condon‘s team were already predisposed to accept the ETH. Chief among them were psychologist Dr David Saunders, who also believed implicitly in Keyhoe‘s cover-up theory (he thought it more plausible than the ETH), electrical engineer Dr Norman E Levine, and Mary Lou Armstrong, the project’s administrative secretary. They were also close to Donald Keyhoe, who broadly supported the study and provided it with case material from NICAP regional investigators…
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
1966.11c
Unfortunately, just a few weeks into the project Condon was quoted as saying: “It is my inclination right now to recommend that the Government get out of this business. My attitude right now is that there is nothing to it.” He added with a smile, “But I’m not supposed to reach a conclusion for another year.” His views on UFOs were thus never in much doubt.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
1967.07
[McDonald] had maintained excellent contacts with the others on [the Condon Committee] staff. As a result, he had been made privy to an internal memo, written in August 1966 by Robert Low and discovered by accident in his files in July 1967.
In McDonald’s and Saunders’ eyes, it appeared to compromise the integrity of the whole enterprise…
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
Matters took a catastrophic turn when a group of renegade scientists within the project discovered lurking in the files a memo written two months before the contract was awarded…
The so-called “Trick memorandum” was leaked to scientists within UFO groups to prove that there was honour left within the Condon ranks. So certain were the disillusioned project members that the final report would recommend deeper analysis that they agreed not to make this memo public. To everyone’s credit, it was withheld, and known only to a select few.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
1967.09.27
Within a year the believers were openly at loggerheads with Condon, who had aggravated them with various public revelations of his growing skepticism. When on 27 September 1967 the Rocky Mountain News reported that he was “disenchanted” with UFOs and was unimpressed by NICAP’s contributions to the study, Keyhoe withdrew NICAP’s support.
At this point the atmospheric physicist Dr James McDonald, who was another disciple of Keyhoe, became central to the way the Condon investigation would be perceived in the future. McDonald had hoped to join the project but was not invited to do so…
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
1967
[Click image to clarify and enlarge]
(The Denver Post)
1968.01.24
In January 1968 an atmospheric physicist at the University of Arizona, Dr James McDonald, one ufologist who was shown the memo, mentioned it in passing in a letter he sent to Low and Condon. They hit the roof.
The scientists who had leaked it to McDonald, Hynek and others were fired from the project forthwith under accusations of treachery. Others walked out in sympathy and disgust.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
It is difficult to tell whether McDonald’s campaign to discredit the Condon study arose from disappointment or spite that he was not invited to join it (or even to lead it), or if it was simply the product of his… belief in UFO reality and the ETH… Whatever his motives, McDonald largely succeeded in raising several doubts about Condon‘s probity…
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
McDonald learned of the crisis between Condon and his staff from Saunders, and on 24 January 1968 he wrote a seven-page letter to Low, complaining about all aspects of the project. In the course of his harangue, he quoted Low’s memo back to him. This document merits a certain amount of consideration…
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
1968.02
Within days Condon fired both Saunders and Levine for leaking the memo. It was not a secret that could be kept for long.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
1968.04c
The Condon Committee is due to complete investigations at the end of June 1968; its report will be reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences (presumably to validate that the study was indeed the objective pearl of the scientific method that was desired), and is expected to be made public in October 1968. Unfortunately, the dismissal of two members of the committee in February 1968 resulted in publicity suggesting that the study was not, in fact, objective. It remains, therefore, to see the final report to determine the worth of the study.
In the meantime, the respectability accorded UFOs by the $500,000 study contract permitted a considerable amount of scientific interest to surface…
(UFOs: What to Do? {RAND Corporation document}, Kocher)
1968.05.14 or 24
This team [of scientists who left or were fired from the project], led by mathematician and psychologist Dr David Saunders, gave the memo to the prestigious magazine Look, who featured it strongly.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
On 24 May, John G Fuller published an article in Look magazine that fumed about “Condon‘s and Low’s prejudice” and how the project was “being gravely mishandled”, and that also quoted Low’s memo in evidence.
Fuller had been fed most of his information (including the memo) from McDonald, and he had followed it up with a visit to Boulder. Both Condon and Low offered “no comment” to questions about the unease among their team members.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
1968.07.29
The accusation that Condon was wasting taxpayers’ dollars naturally brought some politicians into the fray. One, Representative J Edward Roush, had already been primed by McDonald, and he agonized to the House that the country was “poorer – $500,000 later – not richer in information about UFOs.”
Through his contact with Roush, McDonald was able to lobby other politicians and staff members; and by June Roush was prepared to sponsor a symposium on UFOs before the House Committee on Space and Aeronautics, on which he sat. McDonald, using Roush’s facilities, invited the speakers.
All but Dr Donald Menzel – who demanded to be heard after learning the names of the rest – and Dr Carl Sagan were chosen for their pro-UFO views. The testimony shows that the majority believed the saucers were real, nuts-and-bolts craft from outer space, although few – not even McDonald – were bold enough to say so outright.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
1968.09c
This team [of scientists who left or were fired from the project], led by mathematician and psychologist Dr David Saunders… set about writing their own rival report to challenge the official version about to be edited by Condon!
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
1968.10c
[The Condon Committee] members then sat down to prepare its final report, which was to be released [to the public] to worldwide anticipation in January 1969… Condon wrote the conclusions to the 1,000-page official report by himself. These were cleverly put at the front..
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
1968.11
The final report of the Scientific Study of Unidentified Objects as presented to the USAF occupied three bound volumes and 1,465 pages. Before delivery it was read and endorsed by the National Academy of Science. (McDonald had attempted to find out the names of the review panel so that he could lobby them, but was rebuffed.)
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
1969.01
The entire bulky text [was] then given to the press only hours before release. Most reporters only had time to read the summary rather than the densely argued evidence (which lacked even basic facts and figures).
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
Two paperback editions were published, both stretching to nearly 1,000 pages.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
Days after the Condon Report was published, Allen Hynek was notified that his 21-year tenure was over.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
1969.12.17
Blue Book was closing down following the recommendations of the Colorado Report. But the news was withheld from the public for the moment…
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
The American Government were delighted with [the Condon Report’s] negative viewpoint and in 1969 responded by closing the US Air Force investigation team set up after the 1947 sightings. However, recently released documents show that they insisted that UFO reports should still be examined at official levels!
(UFOs and How to See Them, Randles)
1969.12
Fortunately many scientists saw through the facade to the heart of the report. The American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics formed a sub-committee of eleven scientists and challenged its findings. Then, in December 1969, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (the AAAS) gave it the ultimate thumbs-down by staging a UFO seminar in Boston.
Condon was distraught. Indeed he tried desperately to stop it, even appealing to a personal friend (the then Vice-President Spiro Agnew). Agnew politely refused for the White House to interfere. Figures like Hynek and Sagan were lecturing. Thornton Page, who had been one of the CIA’s Robertson Panel debunkers sixteen years earlier but had made a reassessment after seeing the full evidence, was also taking part. So were the chief analyst for photographic evidence in the Condon team, William Hartmann, and a host of scientists including atmospheric physicist James McDonald from Arizona. His brilliant in-depth and independent reinvestigation of the Lakenheath/Bentwaters case put the Condon Project into sharp perspective…
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
1970 on
It may seem strange that after 1969, when it was official policy that UFOs did not represent a security threat, the USAF should continue to log UFO reports.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
1972
A very fine, well-balanced book entitled UFOs: A Scientific Debate, edited by Sagan and Page, emerged from the [1969.12 Boston] proceedings in 1972. It was everything that the half-million-dollar Condon Report should have been. A vital outcome was a declaration signed by thirteen top scientists, including all those who participated in the Boston meeting. It urged the US Government to preserve the UFO archives and hand them over to a recognised scientific institute for open assessment by any qualified researcher.
Sadly, this wish was completely ignored. Indeed, as recently as 1993 Barry Greenwood located some files that had been retained by a Condon Report archivist.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
1977
A series of Project Grudge/Blue Book reports have been related over the years in connection with the USAF’s investigation into UFOs, which was supposedly terminated with the release of the Condon Report in the late 1960s.
(John Lear)
(paranetinfo.com – now defunct)
1989.11.17
You mention the Condon Report: that’s a perfect example of the kinds of things that the Government has done in the past. They commission a study, it’s supposed to be the study, but the guy they hire to run the thing, Edward Condon, said before he even started that there was nothing to UFOs, the Government should get out of it, and he also said at one point that the authors of UFO books should be horsewhipped. One of the explanations that came from the Condon Committee, witnessed by several people, they described it as a natural phenomenon so rare that it has never been seen before or since. I don’t think this kind of a thing is an accident.
(George Knapp)
(paranetinfo.com – now defunct)
___________________________
The report itself is, in fact, one of the most important documents about UFOs ever produced. Most people who have read it through have reached entirely the opposite conclusions to those that Condon himself seems to have done.
Almost a quarter of the cases are considered unexplained, often in very direct terms. Typical phrases from these conclusions are “the probability that at least one genuine UFO was involved appears to be fairly high”, or “this unusual sighting should therefore be assigned to the category of some almost certainly natural phenomenon, which is so rare that it apparently has never been reported before or since”… or the quite explicit “all factors investigated, geometric, psychological and physical, appear to be consistent with the assertion that an extraordinary flying object, silvery, metallic, disk-shaped, tens of metres in diameter, and evidently artificial, flew within sight of two witnesses.”
Quite how Condon could argue, after evaluations like this, that there was nothing to the UFO mystery is rather difficult to grasp. Yet Condon even urged that children should have marks deducted if they mentioned UFOs in their school work. Later he was quoted as saying that authors of UFO books should be publicly horse-whipped!
Until his dying day, Dr Edward Condon did not publicly accept that there was anything of scientific value in the UFO mystery.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
One of the ritual lamentations of the ufologists down the ages has been that Condon‘s assessment of the UFO phenomenon, which led the report off under the title Conclusions and Recommendations, bore little or no relation to the overwhelming evidence of a real mystery that appeared in the following pages. I have even said this myself, publicly, in print…
[The ufologists’] objection to Condon‘s conclusion was based on the sighting reports – or rather, on the final assessments of the reports. As noted, more than half the cases the Condon study considered, in detail or in passing, could be called “unexplained”. A more conservative estimate would put “unknowns” in the Condon Report at about one in three cases. This was far higher than the Blue Book rate (which between 1947 and 1969 averaged 5.5 per cent and, if one removed the anomalous figures for 1952, sank to 3.58 per cent), and far higher too than civilian investigators’ groups regularly achieved – and they were believers.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
In conclusion, Condon had claimed that UFOs were of no interest to science, but the 1,000-page study proved the opposite. Over one-third of the selected cases were left unexplained. Scientists working on radar sightings, landings and photographic evidence concluded again and again that the best answer to an incident was a real UFO. It is said that Condon‘s report persuaded many that UFOs were an unresolved phenomenon – despite his own conclusions.
(UFOs and How to See Them, Randles)
The selection of cases to be studied by the scientists left a lot to be desired. Only 59 were researched in depth for the final report. These excluded much impressive data such as the phenomena at Levelland in 1957, and included personal choices from Condon such as a ridiculous story about aliens from a universe populated by bears…
The report asked if UFOs offered evidence of an alien visit to Earth. It concluded… that the answer was no.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
Major traumas… left the project irrevocably tarnished.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)