If all the ufo stuff is crap, why would the US gov't set up the Roswell incident, claim it was a ufo, only to recant a few hours later?
Think about it. The gov't went to all that trouble to fabricate a ufo crash and publicize it, no small task in the 40's. Then immediately after, they say it wasn't a ufo and give us that lame weather baloon story, which no one ever believed for a second anyway. Why would they want to appear to us to be stupid enough to mistake a ufo for a baloon? Or, why would they want to appear as liars? Why would they create hoax only to denounce it a few hours later? It makes absolutely no sense however you look at it, well except in one way: it wasn't a hoax, those well-educated gov't officials were telling the truth when they said "we have alien space craft, we have alien bodies".
It all comes down to plausibility.
Is it plausible that high-ranking officials could mistake a ufo and alien bodies as a weather baloon? No, this is simply NOT possible, therefore, they are obviously lying about something for some reason, we just don't know what or why.
Is it plausible that the US had some motive for concocting this nonsense to get the public to believe that intelligent life is visiting the earth? Yes, this is plausible, however, why would they go through all that trouble to set up this hoax only to say "opps, we made a mistake, we are idiots" just a few hours later? What possible motive could the gov't have to first scare the shit out of everyone with a hoax and then make themselves look like idiots by claiming they made an impossible mistake about it?
As far as I can see, the US gov't wants to make it's people believe it is in complete control of everything, that it's the most powerful and cool thing in existance. Lying to the world by telling them that an incredibly avanced race exists is not good politics. Also, then saying they made a mistake, it's just a baloon is also not very smart, it makes them look like a bunch of fucking fools, which is also not a very wise political move.
Assuming for a second that Roswell was a hoax put on by the gov't and military, what did the gov't achieve by doing this?
1. they put their own "powerfulness" in question by telling us there is a more advanced race
2. they made themselves look like complete idiots by saying it was all a mistake
Why would the gov't want it's own people to question it's power and intelligence like that? It makes absolutely no sense. The US gov't spent so much time and money convincing it's people that the opposite of these things was true, there's no logical way they would just decide to undermine these efforts for no good reason.
I think that Roswell and Roswell ALONE gives us an overwhelming reason to think that intelligent life has visited this planet. Even if no other "evidence" existed, I'd still think it was true because I cannot think of a circumstance in which the US gov't would first say: "We are dwarfed by another species" and then say "We are so stupid we mistook a ufo for a baloon".
Aside from this, if it was actually a ballon and the initial ufo story was just a scare tactic (for reasons we cannot discern), then why would the military show up, remain there for such a long time, completely quaranteen the area, search people's homes, etc? Fact is, in the case of a weather baloon going down, the military is NEVER called in to investigate, much less set up an occupation in the area. There are simply too many unanswered questions to dismiss this as a mere hoax or scare tactic. Something happened that day, we may never know what, but whatever it was it was fucking hugely significant and the world has not been the same since.
Satori