Vallee on McDonald - final part

Dear readers,

Adelaide today, is experiencing the start of  "winter" (it's still autumn) rains, with heavy falls all over the city. So, I thought I'd find a nice indoor location to finish what has turned out to be a four part post on James E McDonald as seen through the perspective of Jacque Vallee's diaries.

Chicago. Monday 17 July 1967

"McDonald continues to act like a bull in a china shop. Not only is he telling every journalist he knows that the United Nations wants to undertake a "discreet" (!) study on UFOs, he is instructing everyone to send massive amounts of UFO magazines and books to the "Moscow Committee for UFO Studies." " (p.297.)

Saint Germain. Thursday 9 May 1968

On the issue of the Condon committee's revelation over the Low memo. "Now I have learned how the expose unfolded. It appears that a meeting took place in Boulder, gathering all the critics of the Condon committee including Hynek and McDonald. But it is only after Hynek's departure that Saunders told McDonald about the memo, which had been discovered by staffer Ray Craig. Jim caught fire, charged ahead and used the memo immediately, in his typical "elephant in a china shop" fashion." (p.347.)

Willingboro. Sunday 2 March 1969

Writing after the release of the Condon report. "Jim McDonald is expected to write a formal critique on behalf of NICAP. Always the same old maneuvers: These people have understood nothing, nothing at all." (p.384.)

Belmont. Friday 7 May 1971

Professor James McDonald of the University of Arizona, who has become such a prominent advocate of UFO reality since the late sixties, has shot himself in the head. Allen just told me the very sad news. He isn't dead but will remain blind for the rest of his life. There is much speculation about the reasons for this failed suicide attempt. McDonald recently testified before the Senate, opposing the supersonic airplane...The media, gleefully, didn't fail to stress that this was the same professor McDonald who "believed in little green men." His colleagues shook their heads sadly, noting "you see, that's what happens when you get mixed up in all those stories."

Allen was shaken up in spite of his dislike for the man...I pointed out to him that we both had a solid sense of humor, a trait which had always been missing from Jim's personality." (p477.)

Belmont. Wednesday 16 June 1971

Jim McDonald has killed himself. His body was found in the Arizona desert. Janine and I can't shake the depression that this news has precipitated." (p.482.)