THE ROSWELL FILES
"The only thing more incredible than extraterrestrials' visiting Earth is the U.S. government's denying that they exist." GARY OSTROW Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
For believers, the strange events at Roswell, N.M. [SOCIETY, June 23], represent the core of a vast panoply of beliefs in the same fashion that Christ does for Christians. Both claim to make sense out of senselessness. Videos of recent events and countless photos of wingless and bladeless craft, as well as the physical marks left on abductees, support the Roswell belief. DOUG PARRISH Howell, Mich.
The "alien" on your cover--with its predictable oversize head and creepy doe eyes--prompted one of my pet peeves: illustrations of extraterrestrial creatures that look just like humans. Get real! We humans are the product of a host of improbable accidents. Science tells us that space and life are weird beyond belief. And so are real aliens. ALAN M. PERLMAN Highland Park, Ill.
As executive producer and co-writer of the 1994 Showtime film Roswell, I believe you are wrong to be dismissive of Philip J. Corso's book The Day After Roswell. It is the most important breakthrough on UFOs in a half-century. Here is an author who served as part of President Eisenhower's National Security Council, has 19 medals and has let the genie out of the bottle on the UFO cover-up. Corso gives the best justification for secrecy about the Roswell Incident ever offered.
Those who kept the secret and lied repeatedly to the public to hide the technological manna from heaven end up looking omniscient and justified. He shows how America's interests were served for decades by publicly stonewalling the UFO issue while achieving, in total secrecy, the scientific breakthroughs that literally define our modern world. The debris from the Roswell crash was not manufactured on Earth. PAUL DAVIDS Los Angeles
Does the U.S. Air Force really think people will accept the explanation that its high-altitude balloons dropped dummies that did not in any way resemble human beings but just happened to be 3 1/2 to 4 ft. tall, with bluish-colored skin? DEE SCHOR Arlington Heights, Ill.
Your poll showed that 13% of Americans believe intelligent beings from other planets have been in contact with members of the U.S. government. I think the numbers would have been higher if you had asked people if they thought U.S. government officials were from another planet. Why would E.T.s want to speak to anyone in our government? MARE MEYER Los Angeles
I usually take my copy of your magazine with me to lunch when I privately indulge in reading the tabloids (the Star, the National Enquirer, etc.). I use TIME to cover my other reading material so that no one will know my secret. The Roswell cover didn't provide much of a disguise. What's next? Elvis sightings? STORMY JADE WONG Lawndale, Calif.
Anyone who believes that humans are the only intelligent life-form in the universe is ignorant and narrow-minded. Since we can achieve space travel, we can conclude that in this vast universe others have also done so, and that their technology may be even more advanced than ours, allowing them to reach other solar systems. There are a lot of people out there who are lying and just trying to make a buck from this phenomenon, but there is also validity. GENE PATTERSON Palmetto, Ga.