(NewsNation) — Conspiracies surrounding UFOs, Area 51 and secret UFO programs were spread by the Pentagon for decades as a cover-up for classified projects, according to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal.
The Pentagon also omitted certain facts about this from the public version of a 2024 report from the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, some of which may have debunked claims of secret government programs.
According to the paper’s investigation, the actions date back to the 1950s, although it is unclear whether there was a centralized plan for the disinformation campaign.
UFO conspiracies took off during the post-World War II period, a time when the U.S. was also engaged in an arms race with the Soviet Union. Extraterrestrial activity provided a convenient smokescreen for top-secret research that military leaders feared would fall into the hands of the Soviets or reveal U.S. capabilities to them.
The actions go beyond the agency’s silence and hesitancy on UFOs, an absence of information that fueled conspiracies about unexplained sightings. In some cases, Pentagon employees actively spread misinformation, even sharing doctored photos that purported to show UFOs near Area 51, which has been at the center of many conspiracies.
The disinformation was also perpetrated within the armed forces, potentially leading to persistent whistleblower claims of secret programs about UFO technology.
For decades, some commanders on highly classified Air Force programs were told they were joining a secret project to reverse-engineer UFO technology and could never tell anyone about it as part of a hazing ritual. In many cases, the investigation found that those commanders were never informed of the truth of the matter — that no such program existed.
Read the full report in the Wall Street Journal.