My reviews of Donald E. Keyhoe's books have been intended to provide an overview. A more detailed study of documented military secrecy about UFOs along with the resulting internecine conflicts between 1947 and 1973 is gained through reading the books in the entirety.
In Major Donald E. Keyhoe's fifth and final UFOlogy book Aliens from Space (1973), there are indications that Keyhoe's orientation to UFOs had evolved over the years. Although still avoiding analysis of 'contactee' claims, he had become acquainted with what he estimated to be "strong evidence that technically superior beings once visited our planet without harming any of Earth's inhabitants."
Keyhoe identified three segments of this evidence: the Piri Reis map, which had been brought to his attention by a Navy captain and a commander affiliated with the Office of Naval Intelligence; information from the Book of Dzyan and other sources encapsulated in the 1968 Air Force Academy analysis of UFOs (a textbook chapter that became public in 1970) with Keyhoe observing, "There is a curious similarity in the so-called legends, though the countries where they originated-in Europe and Asia-had little or no contact with each other"; and ancient rock carvings found in China, also cited in the Air Force Academy evaluation.
Kehoe wrote about the Air Force Academy analysis: "This serious evaluation had been prepared in 1968, as a means of giving senior AF cadets an appraisal of the problem. Combined evidence and discussions of the main angles were used for a special chapter of an Academy Space Science study... Dismayed AF censors ordered the chapter replaced with an all-out debunking job, deleting all the case evidence and all the serious disclosures... When a newspaper ran part of the original analysis, HQ hastily tried to offset it with the 'updated version.'"
Keyhoe remained suspicious that the UFOs could pose a threat as he identified rare cases where "some UFO pursuits have taken a grim toll." The theoretical elements of Keyhoe's perspective of these incidents were sometimes left unmentioned although in chapter 11, he provided a clarifying statement: "In reporting these strange aircraft accidents there is no intention to claim proof they were caused by UFOs." He also reiterated, "Unfortunately, the cover-up had increased the danger of public alarm, with the growing suspicion that something frightful was behind the secrecy." The grid breakdown that resulted with the great Northeast electrical blackout of November 9, 1965 was one of the occurrences where UFOs became a theoretical scapegoat.
In addition to ignoring the books of 'contactees' Truman Bethurum, Daniel Fry and Orfeo Angelucci, Keyhoe also made no mention of Arthur Shuttlewood's first three books that had been published in the UK. Other books left unmentioned include those chronicling the flying saucer commentary resulting from the trance channeling of Mark Probert, a subject of such books as The Coming of the Guardians: An Interpretation of the "Flying Saucers" as Given from the Other Side of Life (Third Edition 1957) compiled by Meade Layne; and Flying Saucer Pilgrimage (1957) by Bryant and Helen Reeve.. continues
