Editing Donald Keyhoe (section)

==''The Flying Saucers Are Real''==
Interest in UFOs broke out across the United States following pilot [[Kenneth Arnold]]'s [[Kenneth Arnold Unidentified Flying Object Sighting|report of odd, fast-moving aerial objects]] in [[Washington (state)|Washington State]]  during the summer of 1947. Keyhoe began to follow the subject with some interest, though he was initially skeptical of any extraordinary answer to the UFO question. For some time, ''[[True (magazine)|True]]'' (a popular American men's magazine) had been inquiring of officials as to the flying saucer question, with little to show for their efforts. In the spring of 1949, after the [[U.S. Air Force]] had released contradictory information about the saucers, editor [[Ken Purdy]] turned to Keyhoe, who had written for the magazine, but who also had friends and contacts in the military and [[the Pentagon]].{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

As their forms, flight maneuvers, speeds and light technology was apparently far ahead of any nation's developments, Keyhoe became convinced that they must be the products of unearthly intelligences, and that the [[U.S. government]] was trying to suppress the whole truth about the subject. This conclusion was based especially on the response Keyhoe found when he quizzed various officials about flying saucers. He was told there was nothing to the subject, yet was simultaneously denied access to saucer-related documents. One way in which Keyhoe took it upon himself to quiz these officials was to send letters to an Executive Officer by the name of J. S. Earman. 3 letters can be found on the CIA's official website in which Keyhoe inquires towards the CIA's knowledge of UFOs. Earman's answers appear to be unsatisfactory for Major Keyhoe but at some point after this he came to the conclusion that would lead him to write ''[[The Flying Saucers Are Real]]''. It is worth mentioning that, like many declassified CIA documents, these letters have been largely marked up in post.<ref name="CIADOC">{{cite web |last1=Folsom |first1=Ryder |title=-A A +A INQUIRY BY MAJOR DONALD E. KEYHOE (DELETED) |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0000015416 |website=FOIA |publisher=C.I.A. |access-date=January 4, 2024}}</ref><ref name="CIADOC2">{{cite web |last1=Folsom |first1=Ryder |title=UNTITLED (KEYHOE IS INSISTENT IN PURSUING THIS MATTER) |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0000015487 |website=FOIA |publisher=C.I.A. |access-date=January 4, 2024}}</ref><ref name="CIADOC3">{{cite web |last1=Folsom |first1=Ryder |title=UNTITLED (TO DONALD KEYHOE FROM J. S. EARMAN STATING STILL HAVE INSUFFI CIENT |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0000015324 |website=FOIA |publisher=C.I.A. |access-date=January 4, 2024}}</ref>

Keyhoe's article "Flying Saucers Are Real" appeared in the January 1950 issue of ''True'' (published December 26, 1949) and caused a sensation. Though such figures are always difficult to verify, [[Captain (U.S. Air Force)|Captain]] [[Edward J. Ruppelt]], the first head of [[Project Blue Book]], reported that "It is rumored among magazine publishers that Don Keyhoe's article in ''True'' was one of the most widely read and widely discussed magazine articles in history."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ruppelt |first=Edward J. |title=The Report On Unidentified Flying Objects |url=http://www.nicap.org/rufo/contents.htm |publisher=Ace Books |year=1956 |location=New York |pages=89}}</ref>

Capitalizing on the interest, Keyhoe expanded the article into a book, ''[[The Flying Saucers Are Real]]'' (1950); it sold over half a million copies in paperback. He argued that the Air Force knew that flying saucers were [[Outer space|extraterrestrial]], but downplayed the reports to avoid public panic. In Keyhoe's view, the aliens&nbsp;— wherever their origins or intentions&nbsp;— did not seem hostile, and had likely been [[Surveillance|surveilling]] the Earth for two hundred years or more, though Keyhoe wrote that their "observation suddenly increased in 1947, following the series of [[A-bomb]] explosions in 1945." [[Michael D. Swords]] characterized the book as "a rather sensational but accurate account of the matter." (Swords, p.&nbsp;100) [[Anthony Boucher|Boucher]] and [[J. Francis McComas|McComas]] praised it as "cogent, intelligent and persuasive."<ref>"Recommended Reading," ''[[F&SF]]'', Fall 1950, p.83</ref>

Keyhoe wrote several more books about UFOs. ''[[Flying Saucers from Outer Space]]'' (Holt, 1953) was largely based on interviews and official reports vetted by the Air Force. The book included a [[blurb]] by [[Albert M. Chop]], the Air Force's [[press secretary]] in [[the Pentagon]], who characterized Keyhoe as a  "responsible, accurate reporter" and further expressed approval for Keyhoe's arguments in favor of the [[extraterrestrial hypothesis]].{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

[[Carl Jung]] argued that Keyhoe's first two books were "based on official material and studiously avoid the wild speculations, ''naivete'' or prejudice of other [UFO] publications."<ref>
{{Cite book |author=C.G. Jung |author-link=C.G. Jung |title=Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies |year=1958 |page=xiii}}</ref>

===''The Flying Saucer Conspiracy''===
In 1955,  Keyhoe authored ''[[The Flying Saucer Conspiracy]]'', which pointedly accused elements of United States government of engaging in a conspiracy to cover up knowledge of flying saucers.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tD7bAAAAMAAJ|title=The Flying Saucer Conspiracy|year=1955|last1=Keyhoe|first1=Donald Edward}}</ref>  Keyhoe claims the existence of a "silence group" of orchestrating this conspiracy.<ref name="Peebles111">Peebles, p. 111-113</ref>  Historian of folklore [[Curtis Peebles]] argues: "''The Flying Saucer Conspiracy'' marked a shift in Keyhoe's belief system. No longer were flying saucers the central theme; that now belonged to the silence group and its coverup. For the next two decades Keyhoe's beliefs about this would dominate the flying saucer myth."<ref name="Peebles111"/>

The book features claims of a possible discovery of an "orbiting space base" or a "Moon base", knowledge of which might trigger a public panic.<ref>Keyhoe, p. 37</ref>{{fcn|date=May 2025}}  ''The Flying Saucer Conspiracy'' also incorporated legends of the [[Bermuda Triangle]] disappearances.<ref name="Peebles111"/> Keyhoe sensationalized claims, ultimately stemming from optical illusions, of unusual structures on the moon.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/10/a-natural-land-bridge-on-moon.html|title=A Natural Land Bridge on the Moon}}</ref>