This is a preview of the Shortform book summary of The Day After Roswell by Philip J. Corso and William J. Birnes.
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The government managed the alien technology from the Roswell UFO incident with great precision.

Corso argues that the U.S. government, particularly the military, embarked on a prolonged and comprehensive effort to hide the events in Roswell to secure, scrutinize, and eventually exploit alien technology, while simultaneously managing the story shared with the populace and preventing widespread panic. Central to this operation was the control of information about UFOs and extraterrestrials, ensuring that public awareness was minimized as the military conducted clandestine research and advancement derived from the technological discoveries at the Roswell event.

Philip J. Corso outlines a dual-pronged strategy in his narrative. To ensure the event remained secret, a combination of denial, misinformation, and outright intimidation was used to discredit witnesses and sow doubt regarding the authenticity of the event's records. In this clandestine program, the goal was to meticulously analyze and rebuild technology from otherworldly beings, with the intention of integrating these technological advancements into the United States' defense industry's infrastructure.

The initial cover-up and subsequent events linked with the Roswell incident.

Corso offers an in-depth description of how the military promptly initiated security protocols and meticulously ensured that the accounts of eyewitnesses were kept secret following the Roswell incident. The authors emphasize the military's early efforts to construct a unified but misleading narrative for the populace, advocating the story that involved a meteorological balloon while concurrently quashing any contradictory opinions.

Under pressure from the military, Brazel changed his account of the debris he found.

The armed forces employed tactics to conceal information, exemplified by the situation with landowner Mac Brazel, where the alleged crash occurred. Corso recounts that following initial conversations with friends and the press about his encounter with mysterious debris that seemed otherworldly, Brazel suddenly retracted his story, a change the authors attribute to a combination of inducements and coercion applied by armed forces personnel. His reluctance to share details, along with the disappearance of the alleged evidence, reinforced the widely publicized military account that the incident involved a meteorological balloon.

The military used the story of a weather balloon to mask the true nature of the crash incident.

The armed forces deliberately chose a weather balloon, a common device for monitoring the atmosphere, to mask the true events of the Roswell occurrence. The general populace quickly dismissed the early accounts, attributing them to nothing more than a vivid imagination. This approach capitalized on the widespread skepticism about unidentified flying objects and utilized the lingering public anxiety from the 1938 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, which had provoked nationwide panic despite being purely fictional.

A covert team was formed to manage UFO events and control the distribution of associated information.

In his examination of the Roswell event, Corso discovered a specialized team within the upper...

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The Day After Roswell Summary The incident at Roswell marked the beginning of significant advancements in 20th-century technology, which were fueled by the study and incorporation of extraterrestrial technologies.

Corso argues that the significant technological advancements of the 20th century were not just a result of human ingenuity but were also propelled by the government's intentional examination and utilization of alien technology acquired from the Roswell event. The book details how pieces of technology from Roswell were clandestinely handed over to defense companies, disguised as technological breakthroughs from abroad, allowing these firms to develop new innovations and obtain patents as if the technology was their own invention.

Colonel Corso was instrumental in covertly providing defense contractors with technology originating from Roswell, framing it as advancements obtained from international sources.

Corso describes his critical involvement in disseminating components from the Roswell incident among various research and development sectors within defense contracting firms. He argues that technological advancements could be made in secrecy by disguising the government's involvement in the acquisition and analysis of the extraterrestrial craft recovered from the Roswell incident. The defense contractors could assert full ownership of the technology despite it being...

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The Day After Roswell Summary The advancement of military technology during the Cold War era was shaped by the perceived threats from extraterrestrial sources.

Corso argues that the clash with the Soviet Union served a dual purpose within the framework of the United States administration. The considerable funds allocated for defense, ostensibly to counter Soviet aggression, also provided a veil for the government's secret readiness measures in anticipation of a potential clash with hostile extraterrestrial entities, despite official dismissals of any danger from these entities. He argues that the drive to create sophisticated armaments in the 1950s and 1960s, such as rapid combat aircraft, powerful nuclear arsenals, and complex intelligence operations, was born out of the need to match and counteract the advanced technological prowess shown by beings from other worlds.

Throughout the Cold War, funding was allocated to prepare for various potential dangers, including not only the issues posed by the Soviet Union but also the possibility of encountering extraterrestrial entities.

Corso claimed that by exaggerating the Soviet threat, the military secured funding for weapons development intended to serve as a preventive measure, while simultaneously equipping themselves to confront alien entities with superior technological...

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The Day After Roswell Summary The armed forces strategized to establish a moon base aimed at monitoring and safeguarding against extraterrestrial beings.

Corso argues that the army's proposal for Project Horizon, an ambitious plan to establish a permanent lunar base in the early 1960s, was driven by fears of Soviet aggression and the even greater concern of a potential threat from extraterrestrials. The facility was designed to create a formidable military base aimed at maintaining the United States' dominance in space and serving as a forward position to address the growing aggression from extraterrestrial entities.

The armed forces embarked on an audacious project to establish a permanent base on the lunar surface.

Corso describes Project Horizon as an endeavor of equal importance to the Manhattan Project, with the objective of establishing and maintaining the first permanent outpost on the moon. He offers a detailed account of the lunar base's configuration, the processes for transporting crew and materials to the location, and the essential technologies required for the base's self-sufficiency.

General Trudeau had the foresight to conceptualize a fortified moon base as a defensive measure in the face of potential Soviet aggression and unforeseen interactions with alien beings.

The book depicts Corso's superior...

The Day After Roswell

Additional Materials

Counterarguments

  • The U.S. government's official position is that there was no alien spacecraft at Roswell, and the debris found was from a military surveillance balloon project called Project Mogul.
  • Many of the technological advancements attributed to alien technology, such as transistors and fiber optics, have well-documented human origins and were the result of natural scientific progression.
  • Project Blue Book's official conclusion was that most UFO sightings could be explained as natural phenomena or conventional aircraft, and there was no evidence suggesting they were extraterrestrial.
  • The idea that J. Edgar Hoover was involved in a conspiracy to manage information about UFOs is...

Actionables

  • You can explore the impact of technological advancements on your daily life by creating a timeline that traces the origins of the devices you use. Start by researching the history of a common technology, like your smartphone or computer, and note down the key developments that led to its creation. This activity will give you a deeper appreciation for the complex history behind modern technology and may inspire you to think more critically about the sources and...

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