Page Content (OCR)
Implications as complex, unusual, and controversial as the recovery of crashed alien vehicles would be difficult to determine even if all the facts were known and public. But when the very nature of the events is vehemently denied by the government, few qualified individuals are willing to put their wisdom and expertise to work on the problem. Because they look at the situation so differently, the two authors have decided to approach this aspect of the situation separately. But while they see the implications in their own ways, that does not mean they disagree on the basic elements of the impact of the 1947 crashes. The views of Don Berliner will be followed by those of Stanton Friedman. When an oak tree standing alone in an empty field is struck by lightning, the impact of the event is limited to that single tree. Even if it is shattered and killed, not one other tree, no human, and at most a few squirrels are affected. The immedi- ate and the long-term impacts are the same. The loss is routine and easily accepted. But when the first UFO crashed in New Mexico in July 1947, all that kept the long-term impact from being as great as that of any event in recorded history was the U.S. government's pre- venting the world from knowing what happened. It was r \HE SHORT-TERM and long-term implications of something 174