After a wave of UFO reports in 1947, the US Air Force started to study UFOs with Project Sign.
Internally, Project Sign was exploring all possibilities, including Soviet craft and Extraterrestrial craft, but it was never revealed to the public.
The Air Force tried to not engage with the media about the investigation.
If the media insisted, they would identify any case as balloons.
Some of the scientists in Project Sign was leaning more and more into otherworldy explanations for UFOs. Top Air Force brass did not like this, and there was a showdown between the science staff and the Pentagon about how open to be with the public, and the Pentagon won.
The Project Sign report on february 1949 explained most UFOs as misidentifications and hoaxes, but included some open-endedness.
This spurred a number or articles about UFOs around the country. Air Force top brass didn’t like this, and reorganized Project Sign into Project Grudge (1949).
Many of the science staff of Project Sign was transferred out or resigned. The Air Force started to try to shape public perception of UFOs with articles on the press, starting to try to stigmatize the subject.
The film “The Flying Saucer” (1950) was the first film about the topic. The director, Mikel Conrad, falsely alleged that the film contained real UFOs footage, in an effort to gain attention. This launched a multi-month investigation by the Air Force, including a private screening of the film and recording an apology from the director.
Edward Ruppelt joined Project Grudge in 1950, starting as a skeptic. In 1952, UFOs reports jumped from 10 a month to 70 a month. The Air Force reorganized Project Grudge into Project Blue Book in march of 1952, lead by Edward Ruppelt. In july of 1952 the UFO wave over Washington D.C. happened, during two consecutive weekends, and several fighter jets were dispatched to intercept these UFOs, unsuccessfully.
The ammount of UFO reports clogged the Washington D.C. phone lines, which was a nightmare for the Air Force. Major General John Samford was forced to give the Department of Defense’s largest press conference since WWII. He said the most of the UFOs were hoaxes, erroneously identified friendly aircraft, metereological or electronic phenomena, or light aberrations. He conceded that there was a certain percentage of the reports that were still to be explained. Those remaining cases were explained as temperature inversions causing blips on radar.
The CIA convenes the Robertson Panel in january of 1953. A panel of scientists tasked with assessing Project Blue Book and the UFO issue. The panel member were handpicked by the CIA. They all had ties to the military and the Intelligence Community. No matter the evidence presented by Project Blue Book, the Robertson Panel conclussions were already made in advance, “debunking” anything.
The CIA had control of some of the US media, and used it to control the general perception around UFOs, spreading and maintaining the stigma around the topic. The CIA also monitored and even infiltrated civilian UFO groups.
Project Blue Book became more of a debunking tool than an investigation one, and they replaced anyone who didn’t bought into the full debunk angle, including Edward Ruppelt.
Following the Robertson Panel, there were updates to JANAP 146, which made reporting a UFO a federal crime under the Espionage Act.
Air Force Regulation 200-2 gave UFO investigative duties to the newly formed 4602D Air Intelligence Service Squadron, a rapid response team with bases all over the country. Soon they were investigating more cases than Project Blue Book, without the public knowing it. The new regulation also mandated that only the identified cases are reported to the press, drastically reducing the anomalous cases in the media.
Professor J. Allen Hynek, Chief Scientific Advisor for Project Blue Book who is also present at the Robertson Panel, would later discuss how he was tasked to downplay any UFO investigation, and give prosaic explanations, no matter what. CIA used him and other renowned scientists to “debunk” any and all UFO cases.
The Avrocar was used to explain as many UFO sightings as possible.
The DOD issued an updated policy on hoaxes, claiming that hoaxes would not be prosecuted or even identified, in order to not embarass the innocent parties. Compare that to what the Air Force did when the director of the first film about UFOs falsely claimed that he had real UFO footage.
Hoaxers were free to make whatever hoax they wanted with no repercussions, while military and commercial pilots were legally prosecuted for reporting UFOs.
American (and world) population would no longer hear of actual UFO cases, but only from easily explainable hoaxes.
submitted by /u/Pariahb
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