Roswell Conspiracy

On June 14, 1947, the town of Roswell, New Mexico was home to a discovery that would propel the fifth-largest New Mexico city to worldwide fame. The discovery, in question, was debris that is debated to be either manmade or alien in origin. While bizarre conspiracy theories were given the spotlight a few decades later, the Roswell Incident managed to influence popular culture from things like The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Nowadays, Roswell serves as a tourist attraction due it its infamy, with plastic green and grey aliens plastered all over town and even a McDonald’s shaped like a flying saucer. Regardless of the town’s current playful reputation as a UFO enthusiast’s Mecca, the infamy itself is due to a decades long heated debate

After the government issued their press announcement that there was no extraterrestrial debris found in Roswell, most of the world were satisfied with that and the incident was forgotten for a few decades. However, much like with their acclaimed witnesses, the notion that the government is covering up an alien visit is highly unlikely. In 1979, Jesse Marcel was interviewed in the National Enquirer, contradicting the original statement by William Brazel regarding the material of the debris. “…most of it was made of "material that's hard to describe." He said he did not recognize the debris as the remains of a weather balloon, and that when he tried to burn pieces of it with a cigarette lighter, nothing happened. He also said he said he saw ‘undecipherable’ markings on the material that were akin to ‘hieroglyphics’” (Briker). This interview revived interest in the incident; however, it is questionable in terms of its merit. The National Enquirer is a tabloid which pays people for their interviews, meaning that the credibility of the paper is quite low. Marcel, while a witness, wasn’t as qualified as advocates seem to think he was, and this interview being done decades after the event not only makes its accuracy disputable, but also could have merely been done for money. Even though the National Enquirer story

The information that the government wanted to keep secret had nothing to do with aliens, and government threats towards witnesses were not to cover up alien technology. In 1980, Bill Brazel, son of William Brazel, told UFO researchers about what occurred between his father and the government after the incident. “For instance, they noted, Bill Brazel, son of William Brazel, told UFO researchers in the 1980s that his father had been arrested by military personnel, had been held at a military base for several days for questioning about the debris, and had eventually been sworn to secrecy about the true nature of the Roswell incident” (Briker). Advocates assume that the ‘true nature’ of the incident mentioned by Brazel refers to information about aliens. However, there is nothing said by Brazel that actually indicates this. Brazel’s statement is incredibly vague and could imply that the UFO researchers took anything they could get decades after the incident. The government likely wanted to stifle the misguided panic about aliens while protecting the balloon debris, which was a component in the aforementioned confidential Project Mogul. With the Roswell Incident riding on the coattails of World War II and occurring during the Red Scare, the purpose of Project Mogul was definitely something plausible during that time period. In