My Take | Sorry, there are no UFOs, just a vast US deep state conspiracy

So, The X-Files, the hit American science fiction TV series from the 1990s, turned out to be a docudrama. Going by a new investigative report by The Wall Street Journal, there really was a vast government conspiracy over the existence of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and their associated myths such as alien sightings.

However, it wasn’t so much that the US government suppressed – as per the show – the truth about little green men in flying saucers visiting the Earth with superior alien technology. Rather, the Pentagon helped seed and spread stories and myths to distract public attention from its advanced weapons development, such as spy planes and stealth fighters during the Cold War and even after.

“[The] US military fabricated evidence of alien technology and allowed rumours to fester to cover up real secret weapons programmes,” the report said.

“Now, evidence is emerging that government efforts to propagate UFO mythology date back all the way to the 1950s.”

The whole exercise was a ruse to protect what was really going on in Area 51.

“The air force was using the site to develop top-secret stealth fighters viewed as a critical edge against the Soviet Union,” the report said. “Military leaders were worried that the programmes might get exposed if locals somehow glimpsed a test flight of, say, the F-117 stealth fighter, an aircraft that truly did look out of this world. Better that they believe it came from Andromeda.”

Area 51 in the Nevada Desert is ground zero for many UFO fans – the mecca of true believers – but is actually a highly restricted military zone, which no doubt added to the place’s mystique.