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138 As a result of unprecedented cover-up and censorship efforts, the story of the crashes in New Mexico remained totally secret for more than thirty years, and effectively secret for more than forty. There are those who insist that the U.S. government is incapable of keeping secrets, offering as evidence the many leaks that have been given heavy press coverage. True enough, but the secrets that axe kept are those of which the public knows nothing. An official of the U.S. National Archives told the authors that he is aware of classified documents dating back to the First World War! Both authors handled materials classified top secret and higher, Friedman when in the nuclear industry and Berliner when in the air force. Both are aware of the procedures involved in protecting such material, and the ease with which highly classified documents can be kept se- cret. The only way classified materials can become known to the press and thus to the public is by those charged with their care leaking them. There is no way to pinpoint secrets which have been kept, and so only those broken are known. A variety of objections to the above notions are frequently offered by persons apparently not familiar with the world of classified documents and projects: 1. OBJECTION: Surely all classified documents are eventually declassified within twenty years, or at most thirty or even forty years. Therefore, any documents relating to the New Mexico crashes, if they existed at all, would now be available. RESPONSE: There is no general requirement for automatic declassification of all documents, though some are so labeled. As an example, in 1990 the Truman Library reviewed its files of the CIA's Psychological Strategy Board. Half the material could not be declassified for "national security reasons" even though all of it pre-dated 1953. To cite another example: Friedman requested access to ma- terial at the National Archives in the Air Force Headquarters file, all of it from 1956 or earlier. He was allowed to see less than 10 percent of it. CRASH AT CORONA 2. OBJECTION: It would be impossible to keep crashes secret,