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operating behind the scenes to justify such an extreme position. Ironically, Thornton Page himself made an appearance on the CBS special, defending the objectivity of the Robertson Panel evaluation and telling viewers that "we tried to evaluate all the reports without saying they're ridiculous in advance." Cronkite reported that the CIA panel found "no evidence of UFOs" and ended the broadcast by encouraging viewers to remember that "while fantasy improves science fiction, science is more served by fact." [16] Due to the outrage of his constituents following a series of sightings in his state, including the ones labeled "sw'amp gas," Representative Gerald Ford, House Republican minority leader at the time, "in the firm belief that the American public deserves a better explanation than thus far given by the Air Force," called for congressional hearings on the subject of UFOs. [17] Just before the Cronkite special, on April 5,1966, the House Armed Services Committee heard from members of the Air Force, including consultant J. Allen Hynek, about the UFO problem, in which they considered recommendations for an independent scientific on own nm they . considered for scientific an investigation outside of Project Blue Book. The Air Force took its first step away from the messy UFO business by agreeing to find a university willing to coordinate the study, one which would help the Air Force decide whether to continue its own program or disentangle itself from an unsatisfactory public relations campaign becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Late in 1966 it was decided: The University of Colorado agreed to host a government-funded study of UFOs to be headed by Edward U. Condon, a well-known physicist and former head of the National Bureau of Standards. Although initial expectations were high for the project, and for a short time even added legitimacy to scientific scrutiny of UFOs, it gradually fell apart due to internal disputes among the study's committee members. It soon became known that from the outset Condon had held strongly negative personal views about the subject and had never intended to proceed fairly or objectively. On top of that, conflict arose about whether the extraterrestrial hypothesis had any validity along with the many other theories under consideration. A crisis point was reached when two concerned project members unearthed a damaging August 9,1966, memo by project coordinator Robert Low to two university deans. In it, Low had discussed the pros and cons of taking on the UFO research project, when it was still under discussion. One has to approach it objectively. That is, one has to admit the possibility that such things as UFOs exist. It is not respectable to give serious consideration to such a possibility... one would have to go so far as to consider the possibility that saucers, if some of the observations are verified, behave according to a set of physical laws unknown to us. The simple act of admitting these possibilities just as possibilities puts us beyond the pale, and we would lose more in prestige in the scientific community If the project were to be undertaken, he laid out the problem: