Politics

Conspiracy Theories: Government Cover Ups or Fun Stories?

It’s the human want to be able to understand everything. Being able to trust the information given to us and not question it. But what if we’ve been taught was a lie. What we thought were cold stone facts was actually an elaborate government cover up.

One shot by the hand of Lee Harvey Oswald was all it took; The life of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy was taken. Others say there were two gunmen. But, what if it was neither? What if the story to be told here was a less commonly known one?

That November morning in 1963 President Kennedy knew he was going into an area of Texas where party leaders were feuding.

Nonetheless, he needed the votes to win the election of 1964 – so he went anyway. The most deterring event that led to the decreasing support of President Kennedy was the Bay of Pigs. The reasoning behind this is the government agencies known as the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigations did not think enough was being done about the leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro, which gave motive for them to send in hit men to assassinate the President of the United States.

Dr. Joseph Patten, Chair of the Political Science and Sociology Department said, “It’s always good to question authority, it’s important to protect anyone’s right for the protectence of speech. What is the value in the First Amendment if you don’t let people exercise their right?”

When asked what he thought happened on the day of the Kennedy assassination Patten replied, “Earl Warren made a clear government commission, Although various theories were brought into question, they did not find any support to them. I don’t have any more facts and without clear evidence to support one theory versus another I can not make a firm statement.”

Patten said, “There is idea that the mafia was behind it or communists in Cuba behind it. Mafia was connection was linked to John Nibe, who killed Lee Henry Oswald before silencing a larger story. Another idea, Cuban conspiring Bay of Pigs a couple years prior to the assassination.”

Since paranormal happenings have become a repeating occurrence i.e. flying saucers and extra terrestrial life, people have come up with various conclusions. There are traces of truth in these assumptions, strange markings on the land and foreign objects in the sky, which is why some people have come to think that Area 51 is a warehouse harboring alien artifacts. 

Originally opened as a test and training facility NW of Las Vegas, Nevada, it morphed into a nuclear testing base that is considered “classified”. However, why it is classified has never been brought into question. The indisputable claim has always been, more or less – why is the government hiding aliens? This idea came into play around the time when President Truman and the Dictator of USSR, Joseph Stalin were at each others throats over the topic of Nuclear Warfare. It is the popular notion that the Soviets sent young children disguised as aliens in aircrafts to fly over the United States. The strategy in play was to scare the United States so they would not use their nuclear weapons because the Soviets had nothing to reciprocate their combat with. But the aftermath ended with the crash landing of the flight in New Mexico and the death of these children. Which sparked the public’s weariness about Area 51’s conspiracy.

Caitlin Guenther, a sophomore anthropology major said, “The Universe is too big for us to be the only intelligent life forms out there.

When asked what they would like she responded, “no clue…they could look like us or be completely different.”

She was then asked if she thought Area 51 exists, she replied, “where else are they going to keep extra-terrestrial /extremely advanced.”

The final question was, what do you think the purpose is for Area 51? In which she responded with, “Anything and everything that the government wants to keep from us.”

IMAGE TAKEN from parade.condenast.com