One of the most famous countries for its UFO protests and many conspiracy theories is the United States. The United States owes their reputation particularly to zone 51, a military base created during the Cold War. This area is located in the state of Nevada in the United States. It has never appeared in Any official map of the United States government. For good reasons, it is kept secret and was not mentioned in official CIA documents until 2013. The activities of this base being kept secret from the population have been at the heart of conspiracy theories on UFOs since the 1980s. In 2019, a Facebook event was created aiming on storming the famous base. A festival named Alienstock took place instead and many rumors spread during the festival suggesting it may reoccur next September. Today we will learn more about AREA 51, its history, the theories around this base and we will dwell on what represents the security of this zone.
The military base was originally created by the CIA to discreetly develop and test military aircrafts in 1955. This area was selected primarily due to its isolation from cities. This zone has always been known for testing U.S. military aircraft, including aviation.
UFOs and myths related to extraterrestrials fascinated and continue to fascinate the population. Indeed, since the 1990s, area 51 has been linked to conspiracy theories on UFOs and is therefore at the heart of many theories from speculators around the world.
Many of these myths over the years have fueled spectators to attempt storming the place. One of the best known cases is "the Roswell case".
This affair began on July 4, 1947, in the city of Roswell in New Mexico, United States.
A UFO crashed near the city, causing two types of testimony. For many residents and ufologists, this object proved the visit of extraterrestrials on American territory. For the authorities and for the rest of the inhabitants, it was simply a technical incident linked to the secret activities of the state: the crash of a sounding balloon, created to spy on the Soviet nuclear experiments. Because, let us specify, Area 51 was created in the middle of the Cold War which further explicated how it could've been at the origin of a listening program.
Supporters of conspiracy theories believe that the government is hiding evidence of the extraterrestrials coming on July 4, 1947, including the debris of this "sounding balloon" and its survivors. The government remains on its positions and concluded an incident.
This event was widely publicized and even today a majority of Americans believe that there was indeed an extraterrestrial visit to the city of Roswell.
It was then in the 1980s that people began to believe that the ship of this alleged alien was in this military base. For good reason, a television program affirming this fact without proof, interviewed a former soldier of the base by the name of Bob Lazar. He announced that experiments and observations on UFOs (in particular that of Roswell) were indeed taking place in this base.
Some conspiracy theories also believed that the debris would be stored in Area 51, only separated by Arizona from New Mexico.
Beyond these conspiracies which fueled the theories of area 51, many people thought that it was linked to UFOs and extraterrestrials because of the multiplication of UFO appearances near the area, since the 60s. In fact these appearances can often be explained by the official activity of the area, namely aviation. Indeed, the American state has officially recognized that it is a place for testing aircraft.
This military area, then fantasized by all, was talked about in 2019 ...
Indeed, Area51, a place which is now Seen as an integral part of pop culture, was considered being the center of everyone's interest during the summer of 2019. Why? A Facebook event was created on June 27 of the same year in order to gather as many people as possible to storm the secret base and finally know the truth there. Meeting aliens such as Roswell, who represents the emblem of the area, was one of the elements that these adventurers would have liked to meet. Two million people from all over the world responded to the event called "Let's take Zone 51 by storm, they can't stop us all". However at the beginning of August the social network decided to put an end to this desire to invade the base by deleting this post which was, at the base, only a simple joke reports Matty Roberts, creator of the event.
This was followed by the desire to create a festival dedicated to aliens instead, September 20, 2019 in the small town of Rachel, the closest town to the area in question. A festival, later relocated to Las Vegas due to the growing number of festival registrations each day; places were free which encouraged the population to come. The Alienstock festival brought together a few hundred people in Sin City and around 3000 individuals in Rachel.
Invasion plans for the base were even devised by the participants, who planned to run to the base in the same way a popular fictional character « Naruto » did.
The American state was then relieved that the event had not gone as it was originally planned.
Indeed, if this event had taken place, it could have caused real chaos...a mass killing since the American authorities announced that they would not hesitate to shoot live ammunition at the "Naruto Runners". But the fact that a base is kept so secret is that there are reasons for it to be. The Reasons are unknown to the general public, still to this day. only a handful of soldiers would be aware of the activities in area 51. As a result, the spokesperson for the American Air Force, Laura McAndrews, strongly discouraged the few reckless individuals to venture there.
She said: "We will discourage anyone who tries to enter the area where the American air forces train (...) The military is always ready to protect American interests".
The base is guarded by a security perimeter of 40 km and surrounded by signs warning that if necessary, the military can shoot anyone who ventures without authorization, therefore prohibiting anyone from entering it. As proof, in February 2019, a man who entered the security perimeter was shot. You may also receive another sanction. This is what 2 Dutchmen could experience in September 2019, who came, as they said "to visit the area" who were then arrested after 4kms of walking. Their sentence would have been three days' detention and a fine of just over € 2,000 each.
This area fascinates the general public because it is extremely militarized, secure, and secret. And with these uncovered secrets comes conspiracy theories that feed the Public’s imagination. Would knowing state secrets be good for society?
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