"Here Come the Men in Black"

In the study of the unknown in the skies the trope is a familiar one: a pair of strangers arrive (usually in an older model but shiny dark car) , they are wearing similar, slightly outdated formal dress (dark suits, ties, white shirts, sunglasses, hats, etc.), they are often slightly tanned have old fashioned short cut hair or a longer style and respond to ordinary questions with an awkward, stilted, or robotic manner.  They convey a strong sense of something off-kilter, may seem authoritative or even intimidating.

In some instances, they have even worn uniforms and passed themselves off as military officers, police, and government representatives (Department of Defense, Ministry of Defense, CIA, etc.).  The results achieved by these "men in black" or "MIB" is not always immediate - it has to be proven after all - that the MIB are not what they claim. Eventually, however, the result is always the same.

Say "Men in Black" - or infer the same - and believability, credence, and acceptance fly out the window. All those take an immediate - and killing - nose-dive.

What were they? Who are they?

Here is my theory. 

WE ARE FROM THE GOVERMENT

In the early days of the investigations into "UFO's" or "Flying Saucers" as they were called then, the military was only one agency in play. Indeed, FBI files clearly reveal that the Army Air Force (just months before it became the new Air Force) solicited assistance from agents to do the "leg work" of interviewing witnesses, weeding out unlikely or questionable sources, etc.  This dove-tailed with the work the FBI had been doing for nearly a decade: background checks of employees in government positions, checking up on potential spies, and a host of similar tasks. They continued the message of the WW2 era with its top secret "Manhattan" style projects...'don't talk about what is seen.' After all, the posters had all reminded people that "Loose Lips Sink Ships." 

Furthermore, the FBI required a strict and standard dress code of its field agents. The uniform was dark suits, thin dark ties, white shirts and shiny black shoes. All to that a pair of sunglasses and a "Dragnet" style unemotional manner of speech and you have....yes, the Men in Black. Who probably arrived in a shiny dark, sedate, older model car. 

Since many projects involved people, places, or agencies attached to government projects and classified work, the FBI - and other intelligence agencies or groups - investigated. The files of Project Blue Book verify this was the case with reports using a variety of intelligence agencies forms for their records. Additionally, the locals where final dispositions were sent were not Wright Air Field, later Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. 

UNCENSORED AND RUNNING AMUCK

 In the early and mid 1950's various psychological warfare projects were conducted under the umbrella of military, government, and private contracting agencies.  These were almost completely lacking in oversight, allegiance to medical testing regulations, or any but a basic level of results based accountability.  This evidenced by the records of the disbanding of one such project to create another such project with added levels of accountability and applications of ethical codes of conduct. 

The "genie", however, was out of the bottle. It is unclear if all such programs were disbanded or brought under a rein of accountability. Did some float free, hidden beneath layers of black ops funding and high levels of secrecy? 

In this time from the mid 1950's through the early 1970's congressional records reveal that there were massive super-secret and often unsupervised projects underway operating under the label of 'national security." These included testing of LSD and other drugs on unsuspecting citizens, practicing and applying principles of "mind control", and developing plans for sanctioned "assassinations" of world leaders, known criminals, and possibly others.  Those in charge were thinking outside the box but without filters, regulations, accountability and doubtless lacking an untainted moral compass. Those in charge and those who gave approval were often fearful to the point of paranoia and plagued by a thousand Cold War inspired "what ifs."

To hide secret projects at any cost; what would be silencing a few witnesses, removing evidence, or even abducting a few people with some selective hypnosis so they forgot...or maybe even better so they mis-remembered what they experienced?

THE SPACE RACE, LITTLE GREEN MEN, AND M.I.B.

The late 1950's into the 1970's saw many covert projects take over Project Blue Book's prime mission. They tracked experiments and test flights while pretending to do the same thing they always had and finding nothing but, "sigh" somebody had to do it. This double life gave birth to many of the "dirty tricks" and attitudes that would later bring down a President because of Watergate and missing time on a recording. It's genesis, in part, was in this time period. So much in society - and the government - was dealing from the bottom of the deck in the name of success and for some "national security."

Eisenhower's famous warning of the military-industrial complex power grab recognized that secrets, money, and power all go hand in hand. The cycle of politics went unchecked: money to get a candidate in, money for doing the bidding of the money men, and access to secrets. Secrets lead to power and power leads to more power, money and secrets. When you stare in the abyss, said Nietzche, be careful for eventually the Abyss stares back at you. When one is cut loose from ethical guides science, the military, philosophy, religion, and more can bring a Kingdom to its knees leaving an amoral, lawless, heartless culture in its wake.

In the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's was an uptick in "alien abductions" and "sightings".  Many of these were "contactees" who met space brothers and had a message of peace from the stars. Many of these events involved horrific testing procedures, many are simply odd. Others are so odd and unusual they are outliers to the full group. Many of these occurred in South America. Did that region become a testing ground for dueling cold war tests designed to play with people's minds, their memories, and plant false information? It cannot be ruled out. 

The fact that many of the early reports were tagged for the eyes of the psychological warfare or merely the psychology division may be telling. If the Psychological Warfare people were in it from such an early date someone had to be interested in using what was happening to the benefit of the U.S. Government (or any government thinking of the idea).

The "MIB" are the perfect solution for an agency to interfere, retrieve evidence or data, and leave no trace. That is because they know as they police or news reporters drive away they are chuckling about the nutjob seeing strange people. Men in Black. Indeed.