Is the US Government Hiding a Connection Between Nuclear Weapons and UFOs? | Unveiled

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Is the US Government Hiding the Connection Between Nuclear Weapons & UFOs?</h4>

Since the end of World War II, humanity has been consumed with a fear of nuclear weapons. With their almighty power on public display during the Cold War, people were understandably terrified. But why did we see the emergence of alien sightings and UFO encounters at the same time?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; is the US government hiding the connection between nuclear weapons and UFOs?

There’s always been a connection between outer space and nuclear weapons. The last month of the Second World War brought, to date, the only times that nuclear weapons have been used in warfare, when the United States bombed the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between 129,000 and 226,000 people were killed, mostly civilians. This kickstarted the nuclear arms race, however, which itself kickstarted the space race - allowing the USA and USSR to show off their potentially devastating ballistic capabilities. 

At the same time, more and more unusual aircraft were also being produced by the US government, and the country became awash with UFO sightings - the most famous of which, the 1947 Roswell Incident, coming just two years after the end of the war. While many ufologists and conspiracy theorists maintain that the object was an alien spacecraft, the line at the time was that it was a weather balloon, and since 1994 that it was a surveillance balloon from the previously top secret Project Mogul. It was being used to detect the sound waves of any Soviet nuclear weapons testing (the first of which would occur in August 1949). So, the most famous UFO incident in history certainly did come about thanks to nuclear experiments. And it’s been that way since the beginning.

Nevada is both the world capital for UFO sightings AND for nuclear weapons testing. It contains Area 51 and the famous “Extraterrestrial Highway”, as well as the infamous Nevada Test Site, which is only 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.  Shockingly, the site is still used today, albeit for smaller-scale weapon tests, with the last nuclear test - a trial named “Divider” - taking place in September, 1992. Rewind, though, and Vegas was already a global tourist destination in the 1950s… meanwhile, the first test at the Nevada Test Site was in 1951. Up until 1963, then, and the signing of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, this one major city - Vegas - did bear witness to the enormity of these bombs on a regular basis. 

In fact, the explosions even became a tourist draw for Vegas, along with all the casinos and luxury hotels. At the time, you could sample an Atomic Cocktail, a drink designed to celebrate the atomic age, while watching a nuclear bomb trial as if on the sidelines, and seeing a mushroom cloud erupt before your eyes. Unsurprisingly to contemporary minds, there were ramifications… because, really, if you can SEE a mushroom cloud, then you’re definitely too close to it. Indeed, nuclear fallout spread across much of the Western United States during this time, including across Utah, where incidences of cancer significantly increased. And, although we knew about the dangers of radiation exposure by this point, there still seemed to be minimal thought for the effects of fallout on the American population. 

With this backdrop in mind, then, nuclear war was something everyone was growing anxious about, but perhaps none were more concerned than those permanently living in close proximity to atomic tests. And therefore, perhaps the high volume of UFO sightings in the same region is (and was) some kind of manifestation of that anxiety. But still, regardless of all the mid-twentieth century nukes, there is still something ELSE hiding out in the Nevada wilderness, too: Area 51. 

A magnet for conspiracy theories, we know that Area 51 is (and has been) used by the US military to test top-secret spy planes, some of which certainly do resemble UFOs. Officially, they haven’t developed flying saucers out there just yet, but what about - for example - those strange, triangular crafts that we’ve all constantly heard about? One non-alien explanation is the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, a mid-to-late twentieth century design, and arguably easily mistaken for an ET ship. The bomber and others like it, including the U-2 spy plane, were routinely tested in the area, although in restricted airspace… so, while most people would not have seen it, some almost certainly did. And then, because the government was so intent on keeping these things hidden from its rivals, and because there might have been a reluctance to admit to the public that those strange things in the sky were actually state-of-the-art military planes… the UFO legend takes hold. It’s one theory, anyway, and one consistent (possible) link between UFOs and the military, at least.

Another seeming connection between UFOs and nuclear bombs specifically, however, is radiation sickness. It’s not that radiation sickness makes you hallucinate UFOs, because that’s definitely not a symptom… but many who have allegedly encountered UFOs have also suffered physical problems in line with radiation poisoning. A prime example is the case of Stefan Michalak, the man involved in the Falcon Lake Incident in 1967 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Michalak claimed that he had seen two strange craft overhead, one of which landed close by. Hearing voices from within, he called out, but no one responded. It’s then said that he entered an open door and saw flashing panels, but couldn’t find anyone inside… and so he swiftly left. Once outside, the door closed and the craft turned… and, from a gridded panel, hot gas blasted out and burned him, before the ship shot off. When he got home, he sought medical attention, with other symptoms accompanying the burns - like nausea, diarrhea, and headaches - all classic effects of radiation exposure. 

The burns eventually turned into grid-like sores, which reappeared from time to time, and Michalak never fully recovered from his injuries before his death in 1999. So, what did he think he saw? Alien visitors exploring Canada? Actually not. Michalak was adamant that the voices heard inside were human, and he himself assumed that the crafts were classified, American planes. But when he drew the planes, they were unrecognizable… and, almost inevitably, looked exactly like the archetypal flying saucer. Some believe his story to be genuine; others claim hoax, and that Michalak either had an allergic reaction to something, or burned himself while drunk. But what’s your verdict? Can his injuries and subsequent illnesses be explained? 

Imagining that the UFO interpretation is the right one, however, then why would an alien craft be radioactive in the first place? There have been a few theories, over time, linking the two things together… including that hypothesized alien tech could be using something radioactive for energy. Some have speculated that strange, as-yet-undiscovered isotopes could provide a power source. Or that an alien ship could run off a simpler, more standard nuclear reactor. It would have to be a small reactor, admittedly, but powering moving vehicles with a fission reactor is technology we’ve had since, yet again, the 1950s, in nuclear submarines. The US and the Soviets did then experiment with nuclear-powered aircraft, too, but there were too many complications - such as with the shielding of a crew from radiation. There was one experimental Soviet aircraft that completed over 40 research flights, but the reactor inside wasn’t actually wired up. 

Some suggest, though, that the seeming failure of nuclear flight was actually just a cover story… and that its development did continue. Could that then be an explanation for a seeming link between nukes and UFOs? Were both the USA and USSR working in secret on nuclear planes, and then testing those planes out… and when they were occasionally rumbled, might the UFO story have been played up to maintain the mystery? In the case of Stefan Michalak, in particular, perhaps he’d encountered an American craft that had crossed the northern border into Canada. Or a Soviet machine on a spying mission. Or perhaps, still, it was genuinely alien… where the radiation could again be due to a nuclear reactor, or to the radiation that a spacecraft would pick up after traveling so far to reach us here. 

But finally, and again imagining for a moment that there is an alien link, then why would extraterrestrials be so seemingly interested in those regions of Earth that have such a nuclear history? Or just interested in Earth, in general, during the nuclear age? Some variations of the Zoo Hypothesis conclude that they could be worried about the future of our species, watching from afar but feeling that they need to step in whenever it looks as though we’re on the verge of destroying ourselves - i.e., via nuclear weapons. And a few bizarre stories did emerge in the 1960s, with members of the US Air Force claiming that UFOs had been visiting nuclear missile silos to deactivate warheads. Meanwhile, and most unsettling of all, could another possibility be that an arriving alien one day won’t be so friendly, and will instead turn our own nuclear arsenal against us? In that scenario, it could be a swift and total demise.

So, what do YOU think? Are UFOs the result of governmental coverups of top-secret weapons? Or might intelligent aliens actually be interested in our deadliest tools of destruction? History shows time and again that the two are linked, but it’s a connection that (as yet) isn’t fully known.