It's the 65th anniversary of the first battle between the US Military and aliens over Roswell NM in 1947. That's as good of a story as any. It might explain the many trillions spent on "defense" since. Surely the critics who say we have just been supporting the lifestyles of a few hundred millionaires with all that money are wrong.
After all, President Eisenhower gave several speeches warning us against dangers the Alien Industrial Complex, and how we needed massive diversions of money away from schools and hospitals to combat it.
They could have said it was just a practical joke that got out of hand, cashiered the major responsible for the story going to the local newspaper and ended it there. But instead they told an obvious lie.