According to several recent news stories, the American people were told a few great big whopping lies in the 1950s. First the people were told that there was no danger resulting from the testing of nuclear weapons within this country's borders; and second, people who had caught glimpses of test flights of certain aircraft were told they were imagining things.

Who lied to them? The government did!

Why were they told these lies? Well, according to excuses given in the reports, it was thought the populace would panic and start shooting their neighbors or something silly like that.

One story even cited the supposedly widespread panic reported to have happened on Oct. 31, 1934 after Orson Welles aired his "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast.

The prevailing thought seems to have been that since the American people couldn't handle a fictitious radio event, how could the government expect them to handle the truth about spy planes and radioactive milk?

Even though the American consciousness had just gone through a world war and all its atrocities and another war in Korea and its horrors, the majority of citizens were still thought to be so naive and ovine that decision makers thought it best to lie to them.

Nonsense!

Oh yeah, the government officials thought it best to lie, but it wasn't for the good of the people. They lied for the same reason anyone lies about their activities - they didn't want to be caught and they didn't want to be stopped.

On the issue of the spy planes test flights - I sort of understand the secrecy that had to surround the project. I was raised in the military and can understand that type of reasoning.

The Cold War was heating up and the planes were part of our arsenal in that battle of ideologies. What good is a spy plane if everyone knows its capabilities, or even that it exists? And as open as our communication system is supposed to be, it wouldn't take much digging for reports concerning the planes to be received by the very people on whom we wanted to sneak a peek.

But, to let countless people think they had seen little green men from outer space instead of just telling them it was a military test project and that details of the project could not be given, was one of the most high-handed and arrogant decisions the Pentagon has ever made.

Those who observed the test flights knew they had seen something. They deserved more than just a denial from the government that anything had happened.

No, maybe the military officials didn't tell an outright lie, but a lie of omission was definitely foisted upon the American public. Lies by omission are still lies, even when made for security reasons.

Then we find out that all those nuclear tests in the Nevada, New Mexico and Utah wastelands were not quite as harmless as we were told.

A whole generation of children were exposed to harmful radiation in the glasses of milk the medical profession told parents to give them by the gallon-full if they wanted tall, goodlooking kids with healthy, white teeth.

And now it's been discovered that many thyroid and other medical problems the baby boom generation is encountering now could have been avoided simply by adding a drop or two of iodine to those same deadly glasses of milk.

Where is the reasoning here? Was it simply easier to write off a whole generation's health and possibly the health of their descendants than to tell the truth?

That, oops! Maybe there is a danger in all this nuclear testing? Did they really think the parents of this generation were going to panic and run into the streets, shrieking and cryingand tearing at their hair and clothing because of this?

Hey, the truth is that we probably would have had a whole series of hearings on the subject, Congress would have deemed it expedient in the Cold War (military weapons have to be tested for accuracy and efficiency or you might end up at a crisis point and not have an arsenal that can be relied upon), and that would have been the end of it.

Oh, a few politicians or generals probably would have had their hands slapped, but at least that iodine would have been passed around to prevent some people from living a nightmare today.

Are the American people so sheeplike that it's deemed by the "powers that be" that it's in the country's best interest to lie? I really don't think so, although I do think there is atendency towards complacency in the people's psyche.

There does seem to be a trend to bury our heads in the sand, to narrow the focus of our daily lives to include only the events that have an immediate effect upon our lives - and toshut out the larger concerns of the world.

It also has to be admitted that there were peo le who really did panic when hearing Welles' broadcast. And there are people who have reacted similarity to other misunderstood phenomena, such as the UFO crowd who are thoroughly convinced an alien crashed at Roswell, N.M. and that an Air Force hangar supposedly houses an alien spaceship.

These two factors, the population's ability to shake its complacency only when aroused by a crisis and its past gullibility have given those who make decisions think that not only can get away with lying, but that they should. For no other reason than for national security.

We, as citizens, can end this web of deception our own government believes is necessary. We have to start paying attention. We need to turn off our sitcoms and dramas and turn on the news. We need to put down our gossipy tabloids and pick up the daily or weekly newspapers. We need to pull our heads out of the sand and take a good look at the world around us.

We need to make it our business to be informed, and to begin to resent the lies and the thought processes which led to the lying.

We are not ovine, thoughtless individuals. We are the owners; they are our public servants. We need to take our citizenship and ownership of this country seriously.

It is our right, our duty, to ensure that those we pay to protect and guide this country do not tell us any more lies. We have to keep ourselves informed. We have to pop the bubble of complacency which surrounds too many of us.

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If you would like to drop the author a note about the article please email to deborah@ipa.net

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