Editing UFO conspiracy theories (section)

===="Cosmic Watergate"====
In  [[2001: A Space Odyssey|the novel]] and film ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, American discovery of an extraterrestrial artifact prompts a cover up and disinformation campaign with fatal consequence for astronauts sent to investigate.<ref name="PaleHorseRider"/>{{rp|ch. 12}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=unbDEAAAQBAJ|title=Conspiracy Theory in Film, Television, and Politics|first=Gordon B.|last=Arnold|date=September 30, 2008|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=978-1-56720-722-4 |via=Google Books|quote="Nominally a science fiction film, it nonetheless relies upon conspiratorial underpinnings within its core narrative"}}</ref><!--<ref group="note">While the completed film leaves the cause of HAL's malfunction as ambiguous, his duty to cover-up the truth about the extra-terrestrials causes the malfunction in other incarnation of the story: prior drafts of the script, the novel, the novel's sequel ''2010'' and the sequel's film adaptation.

In the Kubrick film, HAL takes on a paranoid, conspiratorial tone just before his 'malfunction', saying: "I know I've never completely freed myself from the suspicion that there are some extremely odd things about this mission... no one could have been unaware of the very strange stories floating around before we left. Rumors about something being dug up on the Moon. I never gave these stories much credence, but particularly in view of some of other things that have happened, I find them difficult to put out of my mind. For instance, the way all our preparations were kept under such tight security. And the melodramatic touch of putting Drs. Hunter, Kimball and Kaminsky aboard already in hibernation, after four months of training on their own."   Whoever explained it as the first time the viewer realizes the Discovery sequence is connected to the prior segments.  </ref>-->  The film was prominent in [[Moon landing conspiracy theories]], which variously argue that humans never went to the Moon, went there with the assistance of aliens, or even that NASA covered up lunar evidence of aliens.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QStqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT228|title=Apollo's Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landings|first=Roger D.|last=Launius|date=May 14, 2019|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|isbn=978-1-58834-652-0 |via=Google Books|quote=Accordingly, this brand of conspiracy theorist claim that NASA covered up what had been found, in the manner the discovery of a monolith at Clavius Crater on the Moon in 2001: A Space Odyssey}}</ref> One scholar opined that the 1968 film "seems to anticipate the post-Nixonian culture of governmental conspiracy".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yJGcEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA98|title=Alien-Invasion Films: Imperialism, Race and Gender in the American Security State, 1950-2020|first=Mark E.|last=Wildermuth|date=November 16, 2022|publisher=Springer Nature|isbn=978-3-031-11795-4 |via=Google Books|quote=2001: A Space Odyssey likewise anticipates changes in the mindset of the security state that occur in the next decade. By focusing on the idea of governmental conspiracy to hide the truth about alien invasion and visitation, it seems to anticipate the post-Nixonian culture of governmental conspiracy that emerges with the disclosure of the Pentagon Papers.}}</ref>

[[J. Allen Hynek]] was an American [[astronomer]] who served as scientific advisor to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force. Hynek had drawn ridicule for his most famous debunking, in which he suggested a [[Michigan "swamp gas" UFO reports|mass-sighting over Michigan may have been caused by "swamp gas"]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwYRW5zQnQcC&pg=PA29|title=Swamp Gas Times: My Two Decades on the UFO Beat|first=Patrick|last=Huyghe|date=June 1, 2001|publisher=Cosimo, Inc.|isbn=978-1-931044-27-1 |via=Google Books}}</ref> By 1974, the former skeptic was publicly charging that Bluebook was "a Cosmic Watergate".<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|6}}<!--<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94299319/ufo-center-set-up-to-end-buffoonery/|title = UFO Center Set UP to End 'Buffoonery'|author=Terence Dickinson|newspaper = Florida Today|date = 22 January 1974|pages = 4A}}</ref>--> Hynek claimed 20% of Bluebook cases were unexplained. Fellow Ufologist like Stanton Friedman echoed Hynek's "Cosmic Watergate" accusations.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94299440/anyone-there-ufos-are-real-says-physic/|title = Anyone there? UFOs are real, says physicist|author=Bob Matyi|newspaper = Evansville Courier and Press|date = 18 October 1977|page = 1}}</ref> In 1976, pulp publisher Ray Palmer argued "there is a definite link between flying saucers, The Shaver Mystery, The Kennedy’s assassinations, Watergate and [[Fred Crisman]]."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1JQmnwEACAAJ|title=The Maury Island UFO Incident: The Story Behind the Air Force's First Military Plane Crash|first1=Charlette|last1=LeFevre|first2=Philip|last2=Lipson|date=November 3, 2013|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform|isbn=978-1-4936-7496-1 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|323|quote=Crisman was the perfect suspect to create a “link” between UFOs, the occult, and the various assassination theories. His testimony was never released and he is now dead. Garrison’s investigation was worthless, relying on hearsay, nonexistent “links,” and spurious “unanswered questions.” Most of the “suspects” were dead by the time Garrison sought indictments. }}

During the 1976 US presidential campaign, Jimmy Carter pledged that if elected, he would "make every piece of information this country has about UFOs available to the public and scientists".<ref name="Donovan2011"/>{{rp|124–125}}