theotherwaldo
Well-known member
You want a conspiracy? I'll give you a conspiracy!
It's 1947.
America's first offensive uses of an atomic weapon were only two years in the past,
We were feeling pretty good and secure - after all we had THE BOMB.
Then the Russians said, "Well, we'll have one shortly - after all, the fact that it exists means that we can understand it and do it too."
(And they did so, two years later.)
This situation intrigued a group of men, most of whom were science fiction writers, that informally called themselves the Dirty Tricks Squad.
They had gotten together during the Second World War and had made a number of suggestions and contributions to plans and programs during the hostilities.
One of them said, "All right, the Russians say that they can copy anything that we can discover and that we can understand. What about if we discover something that we don't understand?"
Hmmmm... .
Well, the Squad had some buddies at Walker Air Force Base just outside of Roswell, New Mexico.
They were in the 509th Composite Group, the guys that nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
These folks understood that the idea of Russia being able to copy our new discoveries was bad.
How about throwing them a curve?
Let's "discover" something that's a game changer - that is useful but that we DON"T UNDERSTAND!
So they dummied up a weather balloon/flying saucer with some dummied up "aliens", launched the mess, recovered it after it crashed, and then did the most intentionally inept cover-up in history.
Then leaked that they were finding all kinds of alien technologies from the wreckage, most of which they didn't understand but some of which they could use for things that ranged from anti-gravity and repulsion rays to death rays.
It drove the Russians nuts.
The Squad also came up with the "test-bed fleet" concept, where we would make one or two special purpose weapons (like the XB-70 bomber), act like we were going to build a whole fleet of them, make their opponents create an entire defensive fleet to counter this threat, then we would go with another system that made the opponent's new defenses functionally useless.
-And that eventually bankrupted the Soviets... .
All hail the Dirty Tricks Squad!
It's 1947.
America's first offensive uses of an atomic weapon were only two years in the past,
We were feeling pretty good and secure - after all we had THE BOMB.
Then the Russians said, "Well, we'll have one shortly - after all, the fact that it exists means that we can understand it and do it too."
(And they did so, two years later.)
This situation intrigued a group of men, most of whom were science fiction writers, that informally called themselves the Dirty Tricks Squad.
They had gotten together during the Second World War and had made a number of suggestions and contributions to plans and programs during the hostilities.
One of them said, "All right, the Russians say that they can copy anything that we can discover and that we can understand. What about if we discover something that we don't understand?"
Hmmmm... .
Well, the Squad had some buddies at Walker Air Force Base just outside of Roswell, New Mexico.
They were in the 509th Composite Group, the guys that nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
These folks understood that the idea of Russia being able to copy our new discoveries was bad.
How about throwing them a curve?
Let's "discover" something that's a game changer - that is useful but that we DON"T UNDERSTAND!
So they dummied up a weather balloon/flying saucer with some dummied up "aliens", launched the mess, recovered it after it crashed, and then did the most intentionally inept cover-up in history.
Then leaked that they were finding all kinds of alien technologies from the wreckage, most of which they didn't understand but some of which they could use for things that ranged from anti-gravity and repulsion rays to death rays.
It drove the Russians nuts.
The Squad also came up with the "test-bed fleet" concept, where we would make one or two special purpose weapons (like the XB-70 bomber), act like we were going to build a whole fleet of them, make their opponents create an entire defensive fleet to counter this threat, then we would go with another system that made the opponent's new defenses functionally useless.
-And that eventually bankrupted the Soviets... .
All hail the Dirty Tricks Squad!
Last edited:
