Area 51 : an uncensored history of America's top secret military base

Superior documentation, a thorough yet casual writing style and a real “Holy F___balls!” moment make this a treat to read. Jacobson tries to find a balance between the times when secrecy really did save lives and the times when it was simply used to sweep embarrassing (and lethal) failures under the carpet. Is the grand reveal true? I don't know. But it's certainly possible, and I wouldn't put it past anyone involved.

Right up to the last chapter this was really interesting, detailed and plausible. Time brings many secrets to light, either through lapse from their secret status, in response to direct FOI requests, or when a witness decides to spill the beans, and the biggie here is saved till last. Jacobsen is interesting in her accounts of the U-2 and A-12 ('Oxcart') projects, especially the power struggles over control of the latter. She has no time for the reality of UFOs, but we are invited to consider the Roswell crash disc as an advanced Soviet artefact operated by remote control and freighted with children, abnormal and/or surgically mutilated by notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, intended to cause a 'War of the Worlds'-style panic in the show more USA and hence a massive propaganda victory for Stalin. Frankly the extra-terrestrial hypothesis seems a lot simpler and more plausible to me! And that Mengele-style experiments were conducted at Area 51 right up to the 1980s: this titbit is dropped in by an unnamed former EG&G engineer in the last chapter. Food for thought, indeed. Given the appalling chutzpah revealed elsewhere in the book - massive nuclear bombs exploded with no real idea of what their effects would be, not occasionally but repeatedly - I wouldn't be surprised. Not a book for ufologists nor conspiracy theorists, but fascinating in its own right as a partial but convincing account of a self-contained world, "born classified". show less

On the plus side, this book provides fascinating details about the history of nuclear weapons development and testing, the establishment and evolution of Area 51, the U2 spy plane, and the Cold War. The book disappoints, however, in its treatment of the flying saucer controversy. The author claims that, according to an unnamed source with personal knowledge of the post-Roswell secret work at Area 51, two flying discs (not a weather balloon) really did crash at Roswell, NM in 1947. But the discs, which had hover capability (supplied by a few captured German scientists), were of Soviet origin (they had Russian letters inscribed on their inner rings)-- a cold war trick by Stalin intended to make the American people believe that aliens had show more landed in New Mexico so as to panic us. According to this story, the Soviets hired Josef Mengele after WWII to supply altered children with enlarged heads and eyes to mimic the appearance of aliens. These children were in the two discs that crashed. Several died, but two were alive and comatose. The US military moved the discs and children to area 51 and invented the weather balloon cover story. Wow. An actual alien landing would be more believable. Why on earth would the Soviets be so stupid (a) as to deliver to the US, its arch enemy, an aircraft capable of defying gravity, (b) as to believe that an alien crash on US soil and the supposedly ensuing mass panic would provide the Soviets with any real or lasting strategic advantage, and (c) as to leave Russian letters inside the craft so as to blow any chance that the hoax would succeed? show less

I got hung up on the weird side of this book, such as the possibility that the Roswell flying saucer that UFO chasers love to discuss really wasn't anything from out of space, but instead was a soviet built flying disc based on Nazi technology piloted by little people genetically altered by Josef Mengele, making them look like aliens. Other parts of the book discussed developments of military or CIA spy planes and nuclear weapons, much of which had been classified until recently. So Jacobsen does introduce some new material on these programs. But the conspiracy elements of the book, plus the argument that since the Government won't comment or confirm other theories somehow proves that they must therefore be true left me unconvinced.

I'd write a review, but you do not have "the need to know."

That might be funny if you weren't the president of the United States trying to get some answers as to what is transpiring at Area 51. While I started this book hoping to gain some insight not only to this very secret spot in Nevada but also to the alleged links to UFOs, I came away horrified by what the author reveals was the "true" course of events at Roswell. Although UFOs (UAVs in today's parlance) are still fascinating and a wonderful thing upon which to speculate, the real secret may be so disheartening and appalling that it's easy to see why it's been kept secret for so long.

Ms. Jacobsen's writing takes you by the hand and leads you into these darkened spaces, show more illuminating them weakly with the tidbits that she is able to uncover. Naturally we do not get to really see inside Area 51, but we are able to see that the events which took and take place there are at the same time vital to our national defense and a contractor's dream come true. show less

This book was in three parts for me. First, introductory promises about alien secrets referring to much to the discredited Bob Lazar. (How could someone too easily outed as a liar about their scientific and academic career be given high responsibility to reverse engineer extraterrestrial tech?) Then, there is the meat of the book which is largely based on declassified docs of the last few decades. This is an arc from WW II Operation Paperclip Nazi scientist missile tests and atomic research leading to when the CIA was directly an airpower. Next comes to Curtis LeMay and the Air Force moving while the shadowy Atomic Energy Commission tests dirty bombs and other nuclear techniques in a growing infrastructure of sites, tunnels and show more interactions with feisty neighbors that are miners and ranchers. After this, the the final material is about Mengele rushing to modify children to be living, large-headed ersatz aliens before retreating to South America. Stalin uses this bizarre crew to staff an advanced, remote-controlled disc craft whose crash near Roswell (the mothership ending up in Alaska) is an elaborate ploy to scare Americans. (Why didn't the USSR put this amazing tech to other known uses.) Well, its a great movie plot but all based on interviews put it in the realm of the least reliable forensic evidence. No physical proof... show less

Firstly: put away that tin-foil hat, Clarence, this has nothing to do with telling you about the bodies of alien visitors. The Roswell, NM 'incident' is debunked in this book as being nothing more than a demented attempt by the then Soviet leader Stalin to create panic among the American public akin to the 1938 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. Had the original USAF Press Release not been replaced in a matter of hours, he might have succeeded. The craft was a crescent-shaped wing and created by two former Nazi scientists, and the bodies of two deformed children were inside to resemble 'pilots', the craft being actually controlled as drones are today.

So that's that.

Now: Area 51, however, *does* exist. It's been used since the early show more '50s as a testing location for a stream of planes being developed by both the CIA and the USAF for reconnaissance and combat purposes. The U-2, then the A-12 / SR-71 were both developed there, as was the F117 'Stealth Fighter'. Most recently they've used the area to develop military drone technology without the public being aware of things until they've been deployed (although the CIA will neither confirm nor deny anything about the devices).

The history of the development of the facility, the reasons therefore, and the various political and national influences on its continued use is fascinating and far more interesting than any "my sister was abducted by aliens" theory spouted by a fictional FBI agent might be.

The final chapter and epilogue declares what the actual answer to the 'alien body' question might have led to, and — to be frank — it's hoped that the author has been sold a tissue of lies by an old man. Were the matter as terrifying as is claimed (no, still no aliens; it's all human), it's no wonder no one wants to open that Pandora's Box. While not convincing in its arguments, the real project resulting from Roswell would make the Iran/Contra affair, the Pentagon Papers, and Nixon's recordings together look like harmless, week-end pranks. I don't *want* to believe the answer. show less