Against the Odds: Major Donald E. Keyhoe and His Battle to End UFO Secrecy

by Linda C. Powell

ONE MAN is largely responsible for the twin pillars of current UFO UFOs represent extraterrestrial technologyand that the government is hiding this truth from us.His name is Donald E. Keyhoe. He was a 51-year-old retired Marine Major when his own investigation of a famous 1948 flying saucer case led him to believe that the US Air Force and the CIA knew the Earth was under surveillance by beings from other worlds and were keeping it secret from the public. For the next 21 years, he devoted himself, at great personal cost, to exposing the official cover-up of what he believed was an alien visitation.Thanks to his highly-placed contacts in the military and secret informants in the Pentagon, Keyhoe became the first major figure to truly challenge the official view that UFO reports belonged in the domain of “kooks and fuzzy thinkers.” He eventually led what became the world's most powerful civilian UFO organization, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). In this, the first biography of Donald Keyhoe, his public and private life before and during his time as the world’s best-known UFO advocate is revealed.

485 pages, Paperback

Published November 17, 2023

Reviews

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor Major Keyhoe, shot by both sides in the saucer wars. This detailed account of his life is also a fascinating view of the weirder corners of mid-century America. Keyhoe escorted Lindbergh on his tour of the US, wrote stories for WEIRD TALES, and more or less stumbled into the role of UFO expert. For the rest of his life he's buffeted by the winds of belief and denial, caught between the Space Brothers and the feds, believing that saucers come from outer space but ignoring the contactees and religious fanatics, easy prey for TV hosts. As with all matters UFOric, this is also the story of a government that keeps secrets, lies, and otherwise behaves as though something enormous must remain hidden.

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across a mention of this book whilst tuning in to The Paracast, an online podcast dealing with the paranormal. On this occasion the presenters were discussing a new biography – and, so far as I can tell – the only biography written about the man who made it possible for reports about unidentified flying objects to be made publicly available, at least in the USA.

Anyhow, I like reading biographies and this one seemed something special, firstly because of the original subject matter, and secondly the knowledge of its author. For well over two hours she suffered an intense grilling by Gene Steinberg and Tim Swartz, impressing me by her responses to the various points, remaining completely unfazed. I have read (well, suffered) lots of books where I found it difficult to "hear" the authors' voices and be convinced of their commitment to their own work; not so with this book, which now I have read, leaving me impressed with its writing style and the mass of research that has gone into it. There's also an index, which for me indicates that the book has been done properly.

Until this book, I had never heard of Donald E Keyhoe; now I know where he came from, what he did, what motivated him, with whom he interacted, and – more to the point – how important he was in bringing the mystery of UFOs out of the cupboard and into the public consciousness.