That do I have to do to stir up the action?” wondered Gen. Charles Cabell, who had previously warned Pentagon colleagues that those who failed to take the challenge of UFOs seriously “can get out now.” After reading yet another futile Air Defense Command report on UFOs, the director of the USAF’s Office of Intelligence, was clearly beside himself. “I’ve been lied to, and lied to, and lied to. I want it to stop,” he told subordinates. “I want the answer to the saucers and I want a good answer.”
Cabell’s pique erupted in 1951; we revisited this obscure moment of official clarity 61 years later, on account of a masterpiece published in September. Co-authored by Michael Swords and Robert Powell, UFOs: A Historical Inquiry explored the roots of America’s surreal relationship with The Great Taboo before debunking and feigned indifference became formal policy. That a historical narrative should be the most substantial development to emerge from the UFO/media horizon in 2012 shows us, yet again, as if we needed another example, just how shallow the bottom really is.
The Swords and Powell book is required reading in any serious study of the UFO phenomenon. To read more, click here.