Paul Hellyer - where did his interest come from?

Dear readers

Another delightful autumnal day in Adelaide. 19 degrees Celsius, and blue skies.

Yesterday morning, before work, I got up at 5am to take a look at the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, which was visible in the eastern sky. I saw a few bright meteors from this annual event. I like to keep up with my astronomical interests, as watching such things as meteor showers, lunar eclipses, planetary alignments etc, reminds me that we do indeed live on a small planet, orbiting an average star, orbiting the galactic centre. This reminder, then feeds into my UFO interests, which tells me that in such a vast universe there are others out there, and that someone is visiting us.

Today's post:

Following on from my recent post about the book "The Day After Roswell" (click here for my post) I came across a curious statement by Thomas E Bullard. On page 9 of his recent book "The Myth and Mystery of UFOs" he wrote:

"...Paul Hellyer, who served as Canadian defence minister and deputy prime minister but whose UFO opinions derived from reading Colonel Corso's book rather than from official knowledge."

This suggested to me that Bullard was saying Hellyer's beliefs about UFOs came solely from the book. I wondered if this was correct?

I went to Bullard's 2005 source (click here) which was given as an article by Gord Heath titled "Paul Hellyer and the Politics of Exopolitics" and read the article for myself.

Heath's article:

I'll quote parts of it below:

"Paul Hellyer, a former Minister of Defence in the Pearson Government, has announced his belief that UFOs are real and that the US is developing weapon systems which are to be used against alien craft entering earth's airspace. He voiced his opinions at the recent "2005 Toronto Exopolitics Symposium."

"In recent years he is one of many prominent Canadians who have opposed Canadian support and participation in the US National Missile Defence program (NMD) and supported calls for a ban on weapons in space.

"It is through these contacts that he began to encounter the views of persons who believe that the US is planning space based weapon systems to be deployed against ET controlled vehicles entering earth's atmosphere from space.

"Paul Hellyer states that his belief in ET visitation do not relate back to insider knowledge obtained from his time spent as minister of National Defence from 1963 to 1967."

"Hellyer states that his recent interest in UFOs was prompted by viewing Peter Jenning's TV documentary on the topic. He later read "The Day After Roswell" by Col. Philip J Corso...In response to those who question how he came to believe the contents of this specific book, Hellyer states that he personally spoke with an unnamed US General who assured him that all of this and more was true."

Jerrypippin:

I tracked down a transcript of Paul Hellyer's speech at the 2005 conference mentioned above, to read it for myself (click here for full version.) In part, it read:

"Later, since the turn of the century I have met some ufologists who have sparked my interest in the subject and provided me with significant research material. Among other things I was asked to watch a 2 hour television special put together by the late Peter Jenning for ABC News. I found it quite compelling...I concluded that anyone with an open mind would have to be convinced by what they heard and saw...

"It may have been that program that encouraged me to read a book that had been on my shelf for a couple of years. It is titled "The Day After Roswell," and was written by Lieutenant Colonel Philip J Corso, a US Army Intelligence officer who had been a member of president Eisenhower's National Security Council and later head of the Foreign Technology desk at the US Army's Research and development Department. It was one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. It is the unimpeachable source of what I am going to say to you today."

"Two or three of my friends have asked me if I didn't think that The Day After Roswell could be just some brilliant work of fiction. My answer was no. Not even with the imagination of someone like Yann Martel, author of The Life of Pi could anyone fake it. The book is replete with too many real names, real places and real dates to be fiction."

"Last summer when I was reading it at Arundel Lodge, I shared a few of the contents with my nephew, Philip. Not having read the book, he was more than a little skeptical. A couple of days later he phoned a retired United States Air Force general of his acquaintance to ask him about the book. "Every word of it is true , and more," the general told him...Last Tuesday I decided that it would be good to hear that assurance first hand. So I phoned the general who Philip had introduced me to at an aviation exhibition a few years ago. He seemed pleased to hear from me so I asked him about the quote concerning Corso's book. "Every word of it is true, and more," he repeated fro my benefit. We then spoke 20 minutes or so discussing the "and more" to the extent he could without revealing classified material. What he said was just as fascinating and compelling as the book. UFOs are real as the airplane flying overhead. That is my unequivocal conclusion..."

Comments:

Having read Paul Hellyer's speech for myself it would seem to me that his interest in UFOs derived from:

1. "Significant research material" provided by unnamed ufologists.
2. Peter Jenning's TV special on UFOs.
3. Reading the book "The Day After Roswell."
4. Discussions with an unnamed US General.

This is quite different to Bullard's assertion that Hellyer's knowledge came from only from The Day After Roswell.

It goes to show you that, yet again, you need to read the source material for yourself.

Secondly, given that Hellyer did say, in his 2005 speech, referring to The Day After Roswell "It is the unimpeachable source of what I am going to say to you today,"
and given that serious UFO researchers believe the book's main claim cannot be true, that this part of Hellyer's opinions are based on incorrect material.

What do reader's think?