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General
Andrew Goodpaster
conducted
by George Filer
George
A. Filer's interview on June 10, 1998, with
General Andrew J. Goodpaster at the Eisenhower
Institute, Washington, DC. Goodpaster was
the former Strategic and Policy Staff Secretary
for President Eisenhower from 1954-61. Later
he was Commander-in-Chief U. S. Forces and Supreme
Allied Commander in Europe from 1969-74. He
genuinely seems to have liked the President and
enjoyed working closely with him. We
discussed the Air Victory Museum and its advisors
such as Admiral Moorer, most of whom he knew.
I handed him the Case Statement concerning the
Museum and he took about five minutes to flip
through all the pages commenting on many items.
He was amazed we were building a ME-262 German
Fighter for the museum. He commented we were
really frightened by that aircraft at the end of
World War II.
He had worked with General Eisenhower during World
War II. He felt that we had to keep the
Russians off balance with frequent over flights,
penetrations, and similar actions during the
Eisenhower Administration. If we maintained
a comparatively defensive posture as under the
Kennedy Administration, they would advance as
shown by the Cuban crisis. General
Goodpaster was in charge of the day to day
coordination on all military and intelligence
matters for the White House. We talked
extensively about the U-2 over-flights. The
President approved each flight on a need basis.
He only allowed a few days for the flight to be
launched or it was canceled. They knew the
Soviets were launching fighters and firing
missiles at the U-2's, so it was just a matter of
time before they destroyed one. He felt,
they handled the actual shoot down of Gary Francis
Powers rather poorly. He thought the British
were also launching some of their flights with
Canberra's and other aircraft.
President Eisenhower wanted civilian intelligence
organizations to provide most of the intelligence
rather than the military intelligence services.
He felt there was too much competition between the
military branches to provide accurate data.
Eisenhower wanted the Navy to get going with the
first satellites, but the Vanguard had a series of
failures. He was not aware of any disc
aircraft being built by our government. I
showed him the plans for the Silverbug Disc
aircraft and he seemed surprised. He
mentioned the Navy had a large research program
that may have built some kind of disc. I
asked about the President's announcement in the
New York Times on December 16, 1954, stating that
the Air Force had informed him that UFOs were not
from outer space. The General claimed was
not aware of the announcement.
I asked about Eisenhower drawing both triangle and
disc shaped craft on his meeting agendas? He
explained that the President was an artist and
doodled with a pencil almost continuously.
Another little known fact is that Eisenhower had
also been a pilot.
I asked the General, if he knew Lt. Col. Corso?
He indicated he had heard of him in regards to the
Korean prisoners of war. He my have met him.
He thought he dealt with the psychology of
prisoners of war. I showed him Corso's book,
and he laughed as he read the cover. He
claimed he had no knowledge of the book, UFOs,
aliens, or crashes. He also knew General
Trudeau, who had been Corso's commander. He
had no knowledge of a file cabinet with alien
artifacts. He handed the book back without
opening it. I asked him if General
Eisenhower had met with aliens? He laughed,
and assured me that he would have known if that
happened. He could affirm that no such
meeting had ever taken place. He seemed
amused by the book but did not seem to take it
seriously.
He did state, that important people from other
countries had queried him with a similar set of
questions about UFOs, He implied his answers to
them were similar to mine. He indicated the
only other groups who might have knowledge would
have been the National Security Council or the
Research and Development Group under Dr. Killian.
General Goodpaster has an excellent grasp of
history, politics, military, engineering and
foreign affairs. His complete lack of
knowledge concerning UFOs was unexpected, and
seemed almost over done. He kept pointing to
the fact his work was the daily hands-on-control
of the military, and not with long range planning.
I also brought up formally highly classified
information concerning our raids, sabotage and
intelligence collection forays behind Soviet lines
using foreign nationals. These former
defectors that went to work for us were known as
Cobra Teams. He acted somewhat uncomfortable
about these missions and avoided confirming these
raids.
He was gracious, friendly and open concerning
every subject, but UFOs and the raids. He
was in daily contact with the JCS and most of our
intelligence agencies. He did not deny the
existence of UFOs. However, his demeanor
implied the government felt UFOs did not exist or
were of little importance. Less likely is
the possibility this subject is the highest
classified program in the government, and key
personnel have been taught to avoid discussing at
any cost. It's probable he would not provide
me with classified data unless I had a need to
know.
He seemed to enjoy talking and stated he wanted me
to stay longer. We talked for almost two
hours. He liked telling little stories about
him and Eisenhower. He encouraged me to
return in the near future. He was very much
a gentleman with high moral standards and concepts
of how a President and officers should act.
It was apparent he was upset with the decline in
behavior in high places.
He mentioned Dr. Killian several times and that
the Navy had a whole series of special programs
under development. His attitude implied he
felt UFOs were of little significance. The only
hint he provided was that they may have been part
of a Research and Development program probably
with the Navy. It's possible he had heard
something about this and was not sure, if had been
declassified. Frankly, based on the
conversation even this is rather doubtful.
Also, it is apparent he felt he knew what the Army
and probably the Air Force had under development.
Additional, meetings might prove more fruitful if
he could be shown declassified documents
concerning the subject.
Regards,
George A. Filer
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