Convergence
. . . On May 1, 1947, Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter replaced Hoyt Vandenberg as DCI. Hillenkoetter was an Annapolis graduate who spoke three languages, had been at Pearl Harbor, and had set up an intelligence network for Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. He was also a friend and Annapolis classmate of future UFO researcher Donald E. Keyhoe. One of the interesting, ignored tidbits of American history is the fact that, from 1957 until 1962, Hillenkoetter sat on the board of directors of the country's leading civilian UFO organization, the National Investigative Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). For some reason, historians of American national security and the cold war do not find this interesting. Why, we may ask, did a CIA director who held the post for three years – during some of the most dramatic moments of the cold war – become interested in NICAP, and even make public statements regarding the need to end UFO secrecy? Was Hillenkoetter "eccentric"? Was he spreading disinformation? Was he sincere? What did he know about UFOs? Professional historians, taking the road most traveled, do not ask these questions, or indeed any questions regarding Hillenkoetter and UFOs, even though the most cursory review of the man's career clamors for such treatment. . . .