Timing, Midirection and Slieght of Hand

Magicians guard their secrets but one they share is the concept of misdirection, "Yes, look at the scantly clad lovely lady and not at me..."   In the early days of the 'Flying Saucer' and the 'Flying Disc' this was a common move as the U.S. Army Air Force , U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Army and then primarily the U.S.Air Force scurried to assure Americans there was no cause for alarm.

Images of many front pages of July 8 and July 9 1947 (the Roswell, NM dates) illustrates that this might have been part of the broader canvas of events at the time.

"Secret Atomic Data is Stolen: Part of U.S. Files Recovered" is the banner headline for several newspapers across the nation that two-day period. The theft of data was an account of a search that actually began the year before but was suddenly in the news with the "White House denies knowledge of theft. " The timing of this is interesting as a Chairman for the senate committee, Bourke B. Hickenlooper, pointed out the theft occurred while the War Department was in charge of the $2,000,000,000 atomic energy plant.

Below that - in various levels of type size - is the story of the Army Disc being found or more often the Army Disc emptied as Army and Navy began a "concerted effort" to stop rumors in their tracks. As one headline made the rounds, "Army Disc Story Brings Rebuke" and "Reports of Flying Saucers Fall Off."

Another oddly timed piece from the United Press was "Flying Saucer in Hand Worth at Least $3000: Rewards offered in Chicago, Spokane, and Los Angles."

Let us touch on that concerted effort of the Army and the Navy at scotching the rumors of objects in the skies.

General Ramey in Fort Worth will go on radio to jump start the whole debunking phase of the event. He will claim that only certain kinds of people had been seeing such things. He made the jest that they had been reported from everywhere but Kansas, because Kansas was a "dry state." Avoiding the fact reports had come in from the Sunflower state.

The El Reno Daily News (OK) for July 8 printed some of the standard press release information going out : "U.S. Army officers discounted theories that the flying saucers are secret weapons for use in bacteriological warfare. They said it was significant that none of the discs had yet shown up on army radar."  Interestingly, the news from Roswell had not made to the newspaper in time for it showing up in that newspaper. So, the attitude on the front page was pretty ho-hum. Inside was a short filler compressing the discovery and disclaimer in under three inches of type.

The general article, however, said some interesting things in light of following events: "The Army and ground forces announced that they were investigating the reported cloud hopping discs with an open mind. But privately, high ranking army officers said they believed the saucers were a hoax and that some persons were victims of hysteria."

Parse that one for a moment.... "cloud hopping" immediately puts tongue in cheek. Open mind is a paternalistic turn of phrase especially when followed by "but privately".....code words.

The approach was going to be placate the crazies, jab a finger at the hoaxers and label anyone else a hysterical ninny.

It would work for many years....