Talk:Roswell incident/sandbox
{{Workpage}}
{{tmbox
| image = 40px
| text =
This page is for rewriting, merging, heavily editing, or drafting sections of the Roswell incident article. All editors are invited to contribute.
}}
Current section being worked on
Military balloon debris recovered in 1947 near Roswell, New Mexico, later became the basis for conspiracy theories alleging that the United States military recovered a crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft. Operated from the nearby Alamogordo Army Air Field and part of the top secret Project Mogul, the balloon program was intended to detect Soviet nuclear tests.{{efn|name=Mogul}} After metallic and rubber debris was recovered by Roswell Army Air Field personnel, the United States Army announced their possession of a "flying disc". This announcement made international headlines, but was retracted within a day. To obscure the purpose and source of the debris, the army reported that it was a conventional weather balloon.
In 1978, retired Air Force officer Jesse Marcel revealed that the army's weather balloon claim had been a cover story, and speculated that the debris was of extraterrestrial origin. Popularized by the 1980 book The Roswell Incident, this speculation became the basis for long-lasting and increasingly complex and contradictory UFO conspiracy theories, which over time expanded the incident to include governments concealing evidence of extraterrestrial beings, grey aliens, multiple crashed flying saucers, alien corpses and autopsies, and the reverse engineering of extraterrestrial technology, none of which have any factual basis.
In the 1990s, the United States Air Force published multiple reports which established that the incident was related to Project Mogul, and not debris from a UFO. Despite this and a general lack of evidence, many UFO proponents claim that the Roswell debris was in fact derived from an alien craft, and accuse the US government of a cover-up. The conspiracy narrative has become a trope in science fiction literature, film, and television. The town of Roswell promotes itself as a destination for UFO-associated tourism.
References
{{reflist}}
=Sources=
{{Refbegin}}
- {{cite news |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Primetime/story?id=528860&page=1 |title=Aliens Changed Roswell, Even Without Proof |website=ABC News |date=February 24, 2005 |access-date=April 18, 2021 |archive-date=March 6, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050306022527/https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Primetime/story?id=528860&page=1 |url-status=deviated |ref={{sfnref|ABC News|2005}}}}
- {{cite magazine |last1=Baker |first1=Nicholson |title=How We Lost Our Minds About UFOs |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/leslie-kean-ufo-sightings-aliens.html |magazine=New York Magazine |date=31 January 2024}}
- {{cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/essentialculttvr0000davi |title=The Essential Cult TV Reader |date=2010 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington |editor-first=David |editor-last=Lavery |chapter=Roswell |last=Beeler |first=Stan |isbn=978-0-8131-2568-8}}
- {{cite book |last1=Berlitz |first1=Charles |author-link1=Charles Berlitz |last2=Moore |first2=William |author-link2=Bill Moore (ufologist) |date=1980 |title=The Roswell Incident |publisher=Grosset & Dunlap |location=New York |isbn=978-0448211992 |url=https://archive.org/details/roswellincident00berl}}
- {{cite news |last1=Broad |first1=William J. |title=Air Force debunks Roswell UFO story |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19970624&id=I_YgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-nIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2904,5034113 |newspaper=The Day, New London, CT |agency=The New York Times News Service |date=June 24, 1997 |archive-date=April 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403083739/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19970624&id=I_YgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-nIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2904,5034113 |url-status=live |author-link=William Broad |via=Google News}}
- {{cite book |last=Bullard |first=Thomas E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8h-jEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA331 |title=The Myth and Mystery of UFOs |date=2016 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=978-0-7006-2338-9}}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hF3dDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA160 |title=Roswell: The Ultimate Cold Case : Eyewitness Testimony and Evidence of Contact and the Cover-up |first1=Thomas J. |last1=Carey |first2=Donald R. |last2=Schmitt |date=2020 |publisher=Red Wheel/Weiser |location=Newburyport, Massachusetts |isbn=978-1632651709}}
- {{cite book |last=Clancy |first=Susan A. |date=2007 |title=Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens |edition=First paperback |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-02401-4 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts}}
- {{cite book |last1=Clarke |first1=David |date=2015 |title=How UFOs Conquered the World: The History of a Modern Myth |publisher=Aurum Press Ltd |location=London |isbn=978-1781314722 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K_R0CQAAQBAJ |author-link=David Clarke (journalist)}}
- {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/dayafterroswell00cors_0 |title=The Day After Roswell |publisher=Pocket Books |location=New York |first1=Philip J. |last1=Corso |author-link=Philip J. Corso |first2=William J. |last2=Birnes |author2-link=William J. Birnes |date=1997 |isbn=0671004611}}
- {{cite book |last1=Disch |first1=Thomas M. |title=The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World |date=July 5, 2000 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |isbn=9780684859781 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0meRTMfDOt4C&pg=PA53 |author-link=Thomas M. Disch}}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kDe3VS07YSMC&pg=PA287 |title=Deep Space Nine Companion |first1=Terry J. |last1=Erdmann |first2=Paula M. |last2=Block |date=2000 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0671501068}}
- {{cite book |last=Frank |first=Adam |title=The Little Book of Aliens |date=2023 |publisher=Harper |location=New York |isbn=9780063279773 |edition=Ebook}}
- {{cite news |last=Frazier |first=Kendrick |date=16 July 2017a |title=Roswell myth lives on despite the established facts |newspaper=Albuquerque Journal |author-link=Kendrick Frazier |url=https://www.abqjournal.com/1033584/roswell-myth-lives-on-despite-the-established-facts.html |access-date=September 14, 2020 |archive-date=January 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220111171626/https://www.abqjournal.com/1033584/roswell-myth-lives-on-despite-the-established-facts.html}}
- {{cite magazine |last1=Frazier |first1=Kendrick |author-link1=Kendrick Frazier |title=The Roswell Incident at 70: Facts, Not Myths |magazine=Skeptical Inquirer |date=2017b |volume=41 |issue=6 |pages=12–15 |url=https://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_roswell_incident_at_70_facts_not_myths |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720182643/https://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_roswell_incident_at_70_facts_not_myths |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 20, 2018 |access-date=July 20, 2018}}
- {{cite book |last1=Friedman |first1=Stanton |author-link1=Stanton T. Friedman |last2=Berliner |first2=Don |date=1997 |edition=Paperback |orig-date=Originally published 1992 |title=Crash at Corona: The U.S. Military Retrieval and Cover-Up of a UFO |publisher=Marlowe & Co. |location=New York |isbn=1-56924-863-X |url=https://archive.org/details/crashatcoronausm0000berl/}}
- {{cite book |last1=Fuller |first1=John G. |title=Incident at Exeter |date=1966 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/incidentatexeter0000john |oclc=712083 |author-link=John G. Fuller}}
- {{cite magazine |title=A Roswell Requiem |first=B.D. |last=Gildenberg |magazine=Skeptic |volume=10 |issue=1 |date=Spring 2003 |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A101495912/AONE |via=Gale Academic OneFile}}
- {{cite book |last=Goldberg |first=Robert Alan |author-link=Robert Alan Goldberg |date=2001 |title=Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8e5YELGGFAC |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8e5YELGGFAC&pg=PA189 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, Connecticut |isbn=978-0300132946 |chapter=Chapter 6: The Roswell Incident}}
- {{cite book |last=Gulyas |date=2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0sW6BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT93 |title=The Chaos Conundrum: Essays on UFOs, Ghosts & Other High Strangeness in Our Non-Rational and Atemporal World |first=Aaron John |publisher=Andrews UK Limited |location=Luton, United Kingdom |isbn=9780991697588}}
- {{cite book |last=Gulyas |first=Aaron John |date=2016 |title=Conspiracy Theories: The Roots, Themes and Propagation of Paranoid Political and Cultural Narratives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F3etCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT89 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=9781476623498}}
- {{cite book |author1-last=Harding |author1-first=Susan |author2-first=Kathleen |author2-last=Stewart |editor1-first=Harry G. |editor1-last=West |editor2-first=Todd |editor2-last=Sanders |title=Transparency and Conspiracy: Ethnographies of Suspicion in the New World Order |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R7mozEcXubAC |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R7mozEcXubAC&pg=PA258 |date=2003 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=082238485X |chapter=Chapter 9: Anxieties of influence: Conspiracy Theory and Therapeutic Culture in Millennial America}}
- {{cite book |last=Huyghe |date=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwYRW5zQnQcC |title=Swamp Gas Times: My Two Decades on the UFO Beat |first=Patrick |publisher=Paraview Press |location=New York |chapter=Chapter 24: Blaming the Japanese for Roswell |edition=Second |isbn=9781931044271}}
- {{cite journal |last=Joseph |first=Brad |title=Beyond the textbook: studying Roswell in the social studies classroom |journal=Social Studies |date=2008 |volume=99 |issue=3 |pages=132–134 |doi=10.3200/TSSS.99.3.132-134 |s2cid=145375518 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3200/TSSS.99.3.132-134}}
- {{cite magazine |last=Klass |first=Philip |date=January 1997a |author-link=Philip J. Klass |url=https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/docs/SUN/SUN43.pdf |title=The Klass Files |magazine=The Skeptics UFO Newsletter |volume=43 |publisher=The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry |access-date=February 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130419004633/http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/klass_files_volume_43/ |archive-date=April 19, 2013 |url-status=live}}
- {{cite book |last=Klass |first=Philip J. |date=1997b |title=The Real Roswell Crashed-Saucer Coverup |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Amherst, New York |isbn=1-57392-164-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/realroswellcrash0000klas/page/26/mode/2up}}
- {{cite magazine |last=Klass |first=Philip |date=January 1998 |author-link=Philip J. Klass |url=https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/docs/SUN/SUN49.pdf |title=The Klass Files |magazine=The Skeptics UFO Newsletter |volume=49 |publisher=The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry |access-date=April 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224112933/http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/klass_files_volume_49/ |archive-date=December 24, 2013 |url-status=live}}
- {{cite book |last=Klaver |first=Elizabeth |date=2012 |title=Sites of Autopsy in Contemporary Culture |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=Albany |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tUgF9udmFuEC&pg=PA149 |isbn=978-0791483428}}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QapJgNWilDoC&pg=PA50 |title=Conspiracy Culture: From Kennedy to the X Files |isbn=9781135117313 |last=Knight |first=Peter |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |location=Oxfordshire, England}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Kloor |first1=Keith |title=UFOs Won't Go Away |journal=Issues in Science and Technology |date=2019 |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=39–56 |jstor=26949023 }}
- {{cite book |last=Korff |first=Kal |date=1997 |title=The Roswell UFO Crash: What They Don't Want You to Know |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Amherst, New York |isbn=978-1573921275 |url=https://archive.org/details/roswellufocrashw0000korf |edition=First}}
- {{cite book |last=Kottmeyer |first=Martin S. |editor-last1=Grossman |editor-first1=Wendy M. |editor-last2=French |editor-first2=Christopher C. |date=2017 |title=Why Statues Weep: The Best of the "Skeptic" |chapter=Why Have UFOs Changed Speed Over the Years? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eHo2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT238 |publisher=Routledge |location=Oxfordshire, England |isbn=978-1134962525 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/whystatuesweepbe0000gros/page/170/mode/1up?q=speed}}
- {{cite book |title=Deny All Knowledge: Reading the X-Files |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=grY6uVffr4UC&pg=PA17 |last1=Lavery |first1=David |last2=Hague |first2=Angela |last3=Cartwright |first3=Maria |date=1996 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=9780815627173}}
- {{cite book |last1=Levy |first1=Michael M |last2=Mendlesohn |first2=Farah |title=Aliens in Popular Culture |date=2019 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, California |isbn=9781440838330 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lvaKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA32}}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2O0QDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA62 |title=Pseudoscience and Science Fiction |first=Andrew |last=May |date=2016 |publisher=Springer International |location=Switzerland |isbn=9783319426051}}
- {{cite book |last1=McAndrew |first1=James |title=The Roswell Report: Case Closed |date=1997 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |location=Washington, DC |isbn=9780160490187 |url=https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/FOID/Reading%20Room/UFOsandUAPs/RoswellReportCaseClosed.pdf?ver=2017-05-22-113519-430}}
- {{cite magazine |last1=Nickell |first1=Joe |last2=McGaha |first2=James |date=May–June 2012 |title=The Roswellian Syndrome: How Some UFO Myths Develop |url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_roswellian_syndrome_how_some_ufo_myths_develop |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130126110931/http://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_roswellian_syndrome_how_some_ufo_myths_develop/ |archive-date=January 26, 2013 |access-date=February 6, 2013 |magazine=Skeptical Inquirer |publisher=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry |volume=36 |issue=3}}
- {{cite book |last=Olmsted |first=Kathryn S. |title=Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u7Sd5vyOOtEC |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u7Sd5vyOOtEC&pg=PA173 |chapter=Chapter 6: Trust No One: Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories from the 1970s to the 1990s |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199753956}}
- {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/watchskieschroni0000peeb_k3q2 |title=Watch the Skies!: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth |first=Curtis |last=Peebles |date=1994 |publisher=The Smithsonian Institution |location=Washington, DC |isbn=1-56098-343-4}}
- {{cite book |last=Pflock |first=Karl |date=2001 |title=Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Amherst, New York |isbn=978-1573928946 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781573928946}}
- {{cite book |last1=Randle |first1=Kevin |last2=Schmitt |first2=Donald |date=1991 |title=UFO Crash at Roswell |publisher=Avon Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0380761968 |url=https://archive.org/details/ufocrashatroswel00rand}}
- {{cite book |last1=Randle |first1=Kevin |last2=Schmitt |first2=Donald |date=1994 |title=The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell |publisher=M Evans |location=New York |isbn=0-87131-761-3 |edition=Hardcover |url=https://archive.org/details/truthaboutufocra0000rand/mode/1up}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Ricketts |first1=Jeremy R. |title=Land of (Re) Enchantment: Tourism and Sacred Space at Roswell and Chimayó, New Mexico |journal=Journal of the Southwest |date=2011 |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=239–261 |doi=10.1353/jsw.2011.0004 |jstor=41710086|s2cid=133475439 }}
- {{cite book |last1=Sagan |first1=Carl |title=The Demon-Haunted World |date=1997 |publisher=Headline |location=London |isbn=0-7472-5156-8 |edition=Paperback |url=https://archive.org/details/B-001-001-709}}
- {{cite book |last1=Saler |first1=Benson |last2=Ziegler |first2=Charles |last3=Moore |first3=Charles |date=1997 |title=UFO Crash at Roswell: The Genesis of a Modern Myth |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |location=Washington, DC |isbn=978-1560987512 |url=https://archive.org/details/ufocrashatroswel00sale}}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9qSxyR0i6goC |title=Little Gray Men: Roswell and the Rise of a Popular Culture |first=Toby |last=Smith |date=2000 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=978-0826321213}}
- {{cite book |last1=Weaver |first1=Richard |last2=McAndrew |first2=James |date=1995 |url=https://media.defense.gov/2010/Dec/01/2001329893/-1/-1/0/roswell-2.pdf |title=The Roswell Report: Fact Versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert |publisher=United States Air Force |isbn=016048023X |access-date=July 28, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130216035900/http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-101201-038.pdf |archive-date=February 16, 2013 |url-status=live}}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3efuBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT67 |title=Forgotten Tales of Idaho |first=Andy |last=Weeks |date=2015 |publisher=The History Press |location=Charleston, South Carolina |isbn=9781625852465}}
- {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=81xoS94LSncC&pg=PA39 |title=UFO Headquarters: Investigations On Current Extraterrestrial Activity In Area 51 |first=Susan |last=Wright |date=1998 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=9780312207816}}
- {{cite journal |last=Young |first=James Michael |title=The U.S. Air Force's Long Range Detection Program and Project MOGUL |journal=Air Power History |date=2020 |volume=67 |issue=4 |pages=25–32 |jstor=26965566 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26965566}}
{{Refend}}