Why not begin with the biggest case of them all?
I want to start off by saying that the
Roswell case needs no debunking: the multitude of books and films on
the subject have pretty much done the job for us. Witness statements
and details of the case have mysteriously changed over time. It is
hard to take the case seriously when it is surrounded by the
fantastic and farcical.
And yet there are a few tantalizing
details that make the case of Roswell more interesting than your
average sighting. There is one singular piece of evidence in particular for this case that fascinates me: the press release of July 8 1947. This was
not an overzealous report created in the imagination of a budding
reporter. It was a press release issued by a legitimate Air Force
official. I do not know of any other official admission of flying
saucers by the US government (other than the saucer they built in the 50's). I welcome anyone to mention
such admissions in the comments, I would really like to know!
The press release was quickly
retracted. So if this wasn't a
flying saucer or alien craft how can we explain the press
release? Why
was it put out there and then taken right back? Is this not
proof positive that alien hijinks were afoot? The
easy explanation is to blame an overzealous officer acting in
isolation. However I
believe there
is a better explanation. I want to note that I propose this as a
possibility and
not as a fact. In other words this is pure speculation. The point
is to imagine a plausible explanation for real world events that
otherwise seem impossible or fantastic.
Check
out this newspaper article from the time. Pretty crazy stuff! Note
that the article does not say anything about aliens but describes
some sort of saucer-like craft. I am unable to find the actual press
release which would be far more useful than a newspaper article. The
press tends to sensationalize things sometimes. If any reader has a
link please let us know in the comments.
A little historical
background: although the cold war started at the end of WWII there
had long been tensions between the east and west. Espionage of
various types had been carried out prior to the start of the cold
war. For example there was a Soviet spy placed highly in the
Manhattan project. That was pretty much as classified as it got at
the time! Both east and west had psy-ops, propaganda, and disinformation programs in addition to traditional cloak and dagger operations.
Operation Fortitude,
operation Infektion,
and Who's Who in the CIA
are a few examples of these shenanigans.
Disinformation in
particular can be a powerful tool. It is my belief that the Roswell
press release of July 8, 1947 was a military disinformation project
and not a legitimate report of a crashed flying saucer. The quick retraction seems to add legitimacy to the report
rather than take it away. After all why would they have retracted the report if they had nothing to hide?
The motivation for
such misdirection is clear: if Soviet agents had infiltrated the
highest levels of American military operations then they needed to be
dealt with. What better way than having Soviet spies chasing
ghosts? If they believed that there might be a possibility that
the USA had captured alien technology then they would have to respond
by committing agents and resources towards investigating any such
claim. Whether or not they found anything they must have been
slightly nervous about the possibility of a technology gap. Remember that the famous Kenneth Arnold sightings happened just
before the Roswell press release on June 24, 1947. While
inconclusive I find the timing of these events suspicious. Perhaps the Arnold sightings gave someone a creative idea to use against the Soviets.
Alternately the press release could have suggested to the Soviets that the USA had
developed a working saucer-like craft. Such a report would have again
indicated a technology gap or at least a craft worthy of investigation. The Soviets would have then been forced into
spending resources on R&D or espionage.
In fact
aircraft that could easily be mistaken as flying saucers had been
made as early as 1934. Such aircraft could perhaps explain some of the many sightings seen after the Arnold incident.
In summary the
Roswell incident was a clandestine project designed to mess
with the Russian's heads!