His posts on the formation of NICAP are of course interesting because of their Townsend Brown content. One name I've heard before is Nicholas de Rochefort ( though there's only one hit here on search: "LongboardLovely", whoever that may have been in real life, viewtopic.php?p=10712&hilit=rochefort#p10712 )
But Mary Vaughan King? That's a new one to me. She seems to have been very close to Townsend Brown via her company "Counsel Services". A bit of a William Stephenson smell perhaps? One of the Women to Remember?
The big financial fracas which marked NICAP's first year and Townsend's resignation seems to have been all about Counsel Services and Townsend's very expensive use of them.
tldr: Counsel Services was a very high-powered, very connected public relations firm, wired into the heart of the post-WW2 order: the CIA, the Marshall Plan, and the anti-Communist China lobby. "Psychological warfare" specialists, in other words, as that discipline was beginning to form.
(Mention China and Psychological Warfare and one almost expects to summon Paul Linebarger, better known as the science fiction writer Cordwainer Smith. Think Blue, Count Two.)
http://ufotrail.blogspot.com/2021/12/on ... quest.html
FBI records recently obtained through the FOIA on Leo H. McCormick indicate the co-founder of Counsel Services, Inc. was investigated extensively to clear him for work with the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA). The records were provided in response to a request for material pertaining to McCormick.
The ECA, a government office, served as an intelligence gathering asset for the CIA. Counsel Services was contracted by the ECA for work in China and later acted as the lead component along with T. Townsend Brown in the incorporation and initial operation of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. The circumstances are detailed in Wayward Sons: NICAP and the IC.
FBI reports contained in the recently received 30-page file reveal multiple investigations were undertaken on McCormick. It is also suggested McCormick applied for employment with the FBI in 1935 (see page 30), some 12 years prior to launching Counsel Services. In this blogpost we will explore the FBI file on McCormick and review some of the surrounding circumstance
Note McCormick's employment from 1941-1946 with the OPA, the Office of Price Administration. The OPA was a federal agency established in 1941 to combat inflation during World War II. FBI reports indicate McCormick was the OPA Director for the State of Maryland.
It should be noted the OPA was created under the Office for Emergency Management, which, coincidentally or otherwise, employed Lewis "Pinky" Thompson during this same point in time. Thompson became a career CIA asset and was a longtime associate of future NICAP board staple and CIA man Joseph Bryan III, as explored in Wayward Sons.
The most recently obtained FBI records show that, in addition to McCormick, the OPA also employed Mary Vaughan King during the early 1940's. She was destined to be an incorporator of both Counsel Services and NICAP. From an October 1949 FBI report compiled in response to Hoover's directive to investigate McCormick for the European Recovery Program (see pages 23-24):
Correlating the above circumstances with previously explored information, we see Leo McCormick launched Counsel Services, along with associates Mary Vaughan King and L.G. Shreve, in 1947. The ad below was obtained from the March 10, 1947, edition of The (Baltimore) Evening Sun:
A March 1949 letter obtained from the CIA, written by future NICAP chairman of the board and then-DCI Roscoe Hillenkoetter, establishes an ongoing relationship between the Agency and the ECA. Hillenkoetter sought to up economic intelligence information supplied from the ECA from levels of "SECRET and lower" to "all classifications, including TOP SECRET":
But here's the fun part, which again I didn't realise:A 1949 clipping indicates by May of that year Counsel Services was working "under ECA auspices" in China:
Have we read this note before? Page 22 in the PDF is a 1971 letter from Townsend Brown to Stuart Nixon of NICAP.In 1956, NICAP was incorporated by T. Townsend Brown along with Counsel Services officers Mary Vaughan King and Thomas D. O'Keefe. A note later penned by Brown (see pages 22-24 of NICAP records) indicates he had an ongoing relationship with Counsel Services. The alliance dated back to no later than 1951 and Brown's apparently unsuccessful efforts to obtain funding from the Defense Department for his Project Winterhaven, a seemingly ill-advised exploration of antigravity technology.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xgwdqp ... 6qHwG/view
THE TOWNSEND BROWN FOUNDATION LIMITED
SASSOON BLDG. (P.O.BOX 272)
NASSAU, BAHAMAS
Kindly Address Reply To:
P. O. BOX 1321
Avalon, California 90704
NICAP October 27, 1971
Mr. Stuart Nixon, Executive Director
1730 Rhode Island Ave. N.W.
Suite 801
Washington, D.C. 20036
Dear Mr. Nixon:
Your letters of September 15th and October 22nd awaited my return from an extended trip to the East Coast. Idid not get to Washington, other wise I would have stopped in to see you.
I am delighted to know that you have taken over the guidance of NICAP's affairs. It has needed someone of your caliber and administrative expertise.
You mentioned that you would like to know something of NICAP's origin. Let me say at the outset that my files and records for those early years are in storage and not now available to me, so that I cannot give you detailed information as to names and dates. I simply do not remember the names of some of the persons involved. Much of this information you will be able to find in your corporate records.
For several years prior to NICAP's incorporation, the Townsend Brown Foundation* maintained an office on Connecticut Ave. near Farragut Square and was engaged in preparing and submitting to the Defense Department a program for proposed scientific research called1"Project Winterhaven". This program intended to be secured under a "secret" classification, covered certain aspects of electric space propulsion, such as ion thrusters and a promising electrogravitic principle which had been published out of Switzerland in 1956. (Inter-Avia, Vol. XI No. 5, 1956 - photocopy enclosed.) Project Winterhaven
however, was never approved by the Defense Department, but interest in its possibilities continued for several years.
* Founded in 1937 - Residue of Estates of my mother (Mary Townsend and father Lewis K. Brown) - for scientific research.
During this time, following Arnold's first sightings of the so-called "Flying Saucers", Iwas keenly interested in their method of propulsion if, in fact, they did exist. No adequate explanation possible within the tech nology of that day. I personally felt that if we could maintain surveillance with a nationwide or worldwide reporting service we might arrive more quickly at a scientific explanation of the method of propulsion, based on light emission and performance patterns. It was accepted in military-scientific circles that the unidentified flying objects which had been seen were not products of U.S. or
Soviet technology. Even the people behind Project Bluebook admitted this privately, although in their official reports they admitted nothing.
The need for an organization to gather information on sightings became apparent. I pondered over the problem for quite a time. During this period Clara John was quite active gathering books and information on UFO's. She held many meetings with her friends "in her garden". I attended some of these gatherings and we together discussed the need and possibilities of a group to study and report sightings. The first meeting of about ten persons was held (I believe) in one of the meeting rooms of the YWCA in Washington. I had prepared for presentation at that meeting a tentative prospectus of an organ
ization which would take the form of a non-profit corporation, organized expressly for the nationwide surveillance of UFO sightings.
Since the effort was to be national in scope and centered in Washington, I chose the name National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. It sounded "official and important". NICAP was an easily remembered abbreviation. The prospectus called for a publication of a news letter and "hopefully", -
monthly magazine called "SPACE". Several radio stations gave this format some initial publicity, principally a station in Baltimore.
The Townsend Brown Foundation had retained a public relations firm from Baltimore in connection with Project Winterhaven and that firm, it seems, was well known to the Baltimore broadcasters and this accounted for carrying this news item on the Baltimore station.
The Foundation also retained an attorney (whose name Ido not remember) in the same building where our offices were located, to file the incorporation papers for NICAP. The three incorporators were: 1) the attorney 2) the woman in charge of the Baltimore public relations firm (whose name I do not remember and 3) myself. Approval as a non-profit corporation (under law )was to come after one
year of active operation. Several Founders (Life time memberships) at $1,000 each were obtained in order to get the office started. I recall that I subscribed to one of these $1,000 memberships and I believe there were several more. It was determined that a Board of Governors (rather than a Board of Directors) would be appropriate.
Accordingly as Chairman Pro-tem, I contacted by telephone several generals, admirals, scientist of note and successful business men of my acquaintance to sit as Governors. Several accepted. Admiral Fahrney
became the first appointed Chairman.
After the office was established on Connecticut Avenue and continued operations seemed assured, Iasked Donald Keyhoe, who by that time had published several books on UFOs and was well-known, to take my place and thereby allow me to go back into the laboratory and active research work in the field of electrogravitics. Keyhoe accepted and I left Washington to conduct further research in France and California. Although Keyhoe retained my name on the mailing list (as life member) I almost lost track of what was going on during his tenure in office. Iwas pleased, however, to know that he was continuing to publish NICAP reports and that the membership was growing.
I believe this brings us up date, and with you taking over the reins: I am happy to see the organization continuing to grow.
If you come to California, Ishall be very happy to see you. The street address in Avalon (Catalina Island) is 124 Chimes Tower Road and the telephone is simply AVALON 859.
With kindest personal regards,
Sincerely,
T. Townsend Brown
TTB:jb
End.
Other references if they would be of interest:
American Men of Science. 11th Edition
Who's Who in the West Vol. II 1969-70
"Interavia" Vol. XI No. 5 - 1956 Library of Congress
"Electrogravitics" - subsection - Library of Congress.
I mean, yeah, *of course* 1950s NICAP was all founded by Navy and CIA people! Did.... did everyone somehow not know this? Did everyone forget? I knew this as a kid in the 1980s! Just from reading library books! Why do any alleged adults in UFOlogy in the 2020s not know this obvious historical fact? I mean I'm glad Brewer is rediscovering this and getting actual FOIA documents, sure. But...... (gestures) the absolute state of UFOlogy, people!An inordinately expensive contract was immediately submitted by Counsel Services to NICAP, stipulating consultants and directors may be retained to work under the supervision of O'Keefe and King (see pages 6-7):
Fascinatingly, O'Keefe's employment history reveals he was a Deputy Director, Commodities Branch, at the State Department in 1947 (see page 192). According to his work history on file with NICAP, O'Keefe's responsibilities at State included sitting on a board charged with selecting personnel for foreign assignments (see page 39).
One such consultant apparently retained as an early NICAP organizer was the enigmatic Nicholas de Rochefort. As explored at length in Wayward Sons, Rochefort was a psychological warfare expert, almost certainly a CIA asset, and credited with founding The Committee of One Million in 1953. The Committee became recognized by historians as the most well-known aspect of the wealthy and powerful China lobby, circumstances we might correlate with both the Counsel Services operations abroad and Rochefort's 1956 work on the upstart NICAP.
At this point in the ongoing research, it could be considered quite feasible to think it extremely likely the launch of NICAP reflected operations of the CIA. While that does not in itself allow conclusions about the motives and intentions of the entire cast of characters, it is indeed reasonable to question why the UFO subculture has so long averted from the available documentation.
The more popular narrative opts instead to frame the mid 20th century intelligence community as tyrannically oppressive of UFO activism and as persecutors of NICAP. The fact of the matter is not nearly as clear cut. Official documents actually suggest that not only did the CIA have a number of evolving interests in the activities of NICAP, including reasons that went far beyond UFOs, but outright facilitated the birth of the organization. The UFO subculture may be guilty in some instances of stubbornly clinging to a past that never actually existed in the first place.
http://ufotrail.blogspot.com/2022/01/co ... aucer.html
Leo McCormick's 1947 Counsel Services went on to be instrumental in the 1956 incorporation and initial operation of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. As recently explored, McCormick previously worked with another Counsel Services founder, Mary Vaughan King, at the Office of Price Administration (OPA). He was employed at the OPA from 1941-1946, serving as the Director for the State of Maryland. King worked under his supervision.
In 1947, the two, along with L.G. Shreve, founded Counsel Services, outwardly a public relations firm. In 1948 McCormick vacated his position as secretary and treasurer of the corporation for reasons which included launching an unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic congressional nomination in Maryland's 4th District.
"After careful consideration I have decided to become a candidate and I have freed myself from all business obligations so as to devote my entire time to my candidacy and to the service of the public," McCormick was quoted in an article announcing his candidacy in the March 10, 1948, edition of The Baltimore Sun.
A 1949 FBI report which contributed to the investigation of McCormick states he sold his interest in Counsel Services to King and Shreve on February 17, 1948 (see pages 23-24). King had been acquainted with McCormick since 1942, while Shreve had known him for 15 years, according to the report. Both spoke very highly of McCormick and thoroughly recommended him for a position of trust and responsibility.
A May 1949 newspaper clipping, two months removed from Hillenkoetter's letter to the ECA, reported three members of Counsel Services were en route by air to China, working under ECA auspices. Mary Vaughan King was described as executive vice president of the firm and cited as the source. She indicated L.G. Shreve, president of Counsel Services, and others who became affiliated with Counsel Services specifically for the assignment, would be working in China.
The article additionally stated, "Shreve initiated the project last December when he was in China with headquarters in Canton. A veteran public relations man, he served with the Army in the China theater during the war as information and education officer."
A July 1950 newspaper article reported Counsel Services was among nine firms making up a newly formed agricultural development association. "Specialists of Counsel Services," the story continued, "are now under contract to the Economic Cooperation Administration in connection with work in Europe after having worked in the ECA's audio-visual education operations in China."
Nicholas de Rochefort was a talented Russian-born Frenchman. Educated in France, he was already speaking and writing for Voice of America by the time he sought United States citizenship in 1954.
Rochefort was notably credited with founding the Committee of One Million in 1953. The group opposed the domestic and international acceptance of Communist China. It also became the most recognized aspect of the significant and wealthy China lobby.
Rochefort's Committee of One Million bore a striking resemblance to the Committee of Five Million, a 1949 political action committee chaired by New York attorney Desmond FitzGerald. By the time Rochefort made political waves with his group four years later, "Dez" FitzGerald was a rising CIA star.
Rochefort worked during the final quarter of 1956 on organizing and promoting NICAP. He is listed in NICAP literature as the Executive Vice Chairman. Related circumstances are covered rather lengthily in WAYWARD SONS.
NateThe enigmatic Nicholas de Rochefort went on to reside in Georgetown until he passed away due to cancer in 1964. He was a professor at Georgetown University, which happened to be the alma mater of Leo McCormick.
