UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record — Review

📖 Buy on Amazon
🎧 Listen on Audible

The book that changed mainstream coverage

When journalist Leslie Kean’s UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record was published in 2010, it did something no previous UAP book had managed: it placed the subject on the front page of The New York Times and made it genuinely difficult for serious journalists to dismiss. The reason was simple. Kean had assembled a group of contributors — retired military generals, commercial airline pilots, government officials — whose credibility was beyond question, and she had persuaded them to go on record with their experiences and conclusions. The result is the most important piece of UAP journalism published in the modern era.

What it covers

The book is structured around first-person contributions from senior officials across multiple countries: a retired USAF general, a Belgian Air Force general, senior pilots from commercial and military aviation, a former governor of Arizona, and others. Each account describes UAP encounters or investigations from the perspective of someone with no professional incentive to fabricate or exaggerate.

Kean’s own chapters frame the contributions, provide historical context, and make the case for a serious national and international investigative program. She is measured, analytical, and careful not to overstate what the evidence supports — qualities that distinguish her work from most in the field.

Why it matters

This book directly preceded the modern disclosure era. It established professional relationships between Kean and the intelligence and military sources whose documents she later helped bring to The New York Times — the December 2017 story that broke AATIP to the public and launched the current disclosure movement. Without this book, that story may not have happened.

It also remains the single best introduction to UAP for skeptical readers, because its contributors are exactly the kind of people skeptics typically invoke as the standard of credibility.

Caveats

The book was published before the AATIP revelations and the Nimitz footage release, so it predates the most significant evidentiary developments of the last decade. Some of the cases it discusses have since received more rigorous analysis. But as a document of credible witness testimony, it holds up entirely.

Who it’s for

The ideal first book for skeptics, newcomers, and anyone who finds the subject difficult to take seriously. Also essential for journalists covering the UAP beat.

Where to get it