Roswell

{{expand}}{{ufology}}
{{cquote|I coined a term for this called the Roswellian Syndrome, and that is — we have a report; an exciting report of something extraterrestrial. Then we have it [[Debunked|shot down]], if you will — and it goes away. But it never ''really'' goes away. People's [[Cognitive_bias|memories start playing tricks on them]], so they're all put into this burgeoning [[folklore]] of the [[Conspiracy_theory|hidden]] [[UFO|saucer]].|||[[Joe Nickell]]<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o92V9JEzbIU The Real 'X-Files'?] Vice, YouTube, 4 December 2015.</ref>}}
'''Roswell''' is a town in the [[United States|U.S.]] state of [[New Mexico]], known primarily as the birthplace of actress {{wpl|Demi Moore||,}} the boyhood home of astronaut {{wpl|Edgar Mitchell}} and something involving [[Unidentified flying object|UFO]]s. 

==What actually happened==
Well, there's quite a story there, but far less exotic than the UFOlogists have always said. The truth is, something ''did'' crash at Roswell. Although the term "flying saucer" was used in the newspapers in the area at the time, it was retracted in favor of "weather balloon." Neither was exactly accurate, though the latter is far closer to the truth.

On 14 June 1947, Roswell rancher William "Mac" Brazel found a tangled clump of balsa wood, tinfoil, and some oddly decorated tape.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090109043134/http://ufologie.net/rw/p/roswelldailyrecord9jul1947.htm Harassed Rancher who Located 'Saucer' Sorry He Told About it]. Roswell Daily Record, July 1947. Archived from the original at ufologie.net on 9 January 2009.</ref> Some [[United States Armed Forces|military]] men from the nearby Army air field came by and picked it up, somehow mistaking it for a flying saucer. The [[Pentagon]], realizing that it was a radar reflector from a [[nuclear weapons]] test detection system they'd been working on called {{wpl|Project Mogul|Project Mogul,}} called it a weather balloon and stopped talking about it. The first wave of the UFO craze started about a week and a half later in [[Washington State]]. Roswell would remain forgotten until the late 1970s, when [[True Believer|true believers]] started investigating the story, jumped to a lot of conclusions, and elevated it into a gigantic [[conspiracy theory]].

Roswell (the incident) has long since become a major moneymaker for Roswell (the town), and has become a byword for UFO believers (as a great [[coverup]]) and UFO [[skeptic]]s (as a symbol of tenacious credulity).

==What didn't happen==
[[Extraterrestrial|Aliens]] came to [[Earth]] from another galaxy but then crashed and died. 

What? Are you telling us that an alien race engineered an inter-galactic drive, but didn't invent seat belts?

==Stalin and Mengele==
''Area 51'', a 2011 book by one Annie Jacobsen claims that the Roswell incident was the result of a botched attempt at psychological warfare against the United States by the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>[https://www.npr.org/2011/05/17/136356848/area-51-uncensored-was-it-ufos-or-the-ussr Area 51 'Uncensored': Was It UFOs Or The USSR?] Fresh Air, [[NPR]], 17 May 2011.</ref> According to her book, [[Stalin]] tried to throw the US into a [[Mass hysteria|mass panic]] similar to the panic caused by Orson Welles' ''War of the Worlds'' by sending a remotely controlled experimental aircraft with a payload of [[Lulz|children surgically modified to look like aliens]] by no-one else but [[Holocaust|Dr. Mengele]] himself. In return Mengele was apparently promised a secret [[eugenics]] lab,<ref> [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/8512408/Roswell-was-Soviet-plot-to-create-US-panic.html Roswell 'was Soviet plot to create US panic'], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' having a bad day</ref> which is particularly bizarre given the Soviet Union repressed most [[genetics]] research.<ref>Hudson, P. S., and R. H. Richens. ''The New Genetics in the Soviet Union''. Cambridge, U.K.: English School of Agriculture, 1946.</ref> According to her account, it didn't work out because the aircraft crashed, the US military retrieved the wreckage and covered it up.  Yeah.

The story is based on a single, anonymous source and it is unclear if the source made this up to pull Jacobsen's leg or if she exaggerated or misinterpreted what she had been told.<ref group=note>She has some history of, errrrr, [http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/skyterror.asp over-dramatizing events.]</ref> Some of the rest of the ex-Area 51 personnel interviewed by her for the book are really not amused by the "revelation."<ref>[http://weirdnews.aol.com/2011/06/07/area-51-ufos-aliens-annie-jacobsen-nazi-soviet_n_869706.html Area 51 Personnel Feel 'Betrayed' By Annie Jacobsen's Soviet-Nazi UFO Connection], AOL (Note the credulous way Jacobsen is given the last word.)</ref> It is very likely that the story is a publicity stunt to sell the book. Needless to say, the UFO believers are not convinced at all.<ref>[http://www.ufodigest.com/article/not-my-roswell-%E2%80%93-why-joe-stalin-saucer-explanation-roswell-more-disinformation Not on My Roswell – Why the Joe Stalin Saucer Explanation for Roswell Is More Disinformation], ''UFO Digest''</ref>

==See also==
*[[Area 51]]
*[[Majestic 12]]
*[[John Denver]], who was actually born in Roswell (and not [[Colorado]] or [[West Virginia]])

==External links==
*[https://www.straightdope.com/21342139/did-a-flying-saucer-crash-near-roswell-new-mexico-in-the-1940s-what-s-with-this-alien-autopsy-movieThe Straight Dope tackles Roswell in 1996] (including a debate with a believer)
*[http://www.skepdic.com/roswell.html Roswell] entry in [[The Skeptic's Dictionary]]
*[http://www.roswellfiles.com/ Roswell Files]
*{{see-wp|Roswell UFO incident}} (It has more references than this one.)
*[http://www.nmsr.org/roswell.htm The Roswell Incident], page by the New Mexicans for Science and Reason, a [[New Mexico]] skeptical group

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Cities]]
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Media hysteria]]
[[Category:Military]]
[[Category:Skepticism]]
[[Category:Ufology]]
[[Category:United States]]

Categories: Cities, Geography, Media hysteria, Military, Skepticism, Ufology, United States