Truth Sieve

The immediate post-war period was relatively quite with respect to alien activity and human actions surrounding their presence.  But as the Cold War heated up during the late 1940s and early 1950s, some at the elite levels of the American political community began to perceive a risk that some of their members might “spill the beans” with respect to the extra-terrestrial presence.  The palpable fear of disclosure created an environment which risked the growth of business interests in the US (later referred to as the Military-Industrial Complex by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower).  The fact that the US had been the driving force behind the victory against the Axis and that the US was the first and pre-eminent nuclear contributed to the sense that the initiates of the alien secret must remain in power.  They could brook no dissent.

To protect their secrets and interests they created the Red Scare, more appropriately the Second Red Scare.  Upstanding Americans were accused of disloyalty by various Congressional and FBI investigations.  Most notable among these investigations were those of US Senator Joseph McCarthy and the US House of Representatives House Un-American Activities Committee.  The investigators used numerous strong-arm, and frequently unlawful, tactics to investigate and assert that many Americans were involved in providing support to the growth of Communism in the US and world-wide.  Careers and lives were ruined.  The efforts were given the sobriquet “McCarthyism” for the fanatical, and fictional, approach that Senator McCarthy took to exposing the “Red Menace.”  The whole series of investigations was an elaborate ruse designed to distract and deflect attention from their activities; activities that some would certainly consider more treacherous than alleged  collusion with “commies.”  The whole fabrication was made more believable by attacking Americans outside of the government and military such as prominent members of the entertainment industry, academics, and union members.

The ruse worked well because the goal was to extract as much information from the aliens as possible while keeping the general population ignorant.  There was, after all, a real Red Menace that needed to be defeated.  Extra-terrestrial technology could make the defeat of the Reds much simpler and lasting.  Such technology would also have the effect of cementing the initiates of the secret’s hold on power.