Roswell

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!