[1] The book pointedly accused elements of United States government of engaging in a conspiracy to cover up knowledge of flying saucers.

[3] Historian of folklore Curtis Peebles argues: "The Flying Saucer Conspiracy marked a shift in Keyhoe's belief system.

"[3] Keyhoe argued that 'the United States had developed protocols in dealing with UFOs and actively undertook measures to silence critics hide the existence of extraterrestrial life'.

[7] In his book, Keyhoe alleges the loss was covered up, writing "Later I learned it had appeared in the early edition of the Chicago Tribune headed 'Jet, Two Aboard, Vanishes Over Lake Superior.'

"[7] On December 5, 1945, five Torpedo Bombers had disappeared during an over-water training mission east of Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station.

[9][10] The third chapter, "The Silence Group Strikes", Keyhoe discusses how 'in August, 1952, the censors temporarily lost control, after mass sightings in July had caused wide alarm."

Keyhoe claims that "Under a new policy, set by General Samford, I was invited to the Pentagon and offered the most baffling UFO reports in Air Force Intelligence files-cases pointing clearly to the interplanetary answer."

Undoubtedly they are actuated by a high motive -- the need, as the see it, to protect the public from possible hysteria..."[13] In Chapter Two, "The First Clue", Keyhoe describes rumors of an orbiting 'space base' which he alleges is being covered up.

"[20] Keyhoe encounters a Canadian UFO researcher, Wilbert Smith, who argues "The discs may create their own gravitational field — that is, they could nullify the pull of the Earth's gravity.

[24] In 1958, mystic-psychoanalyst Carl Jung recommended Keyhoe's books as works that are "based on official material and studiously avoid the wild speculation, naivete, or prejudice of other publications.