Review: Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth

Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth by Greg Bishop
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Closer to a 3.5.

I forget what the conversation was that turned me onto this book, but considering the constant enjoyment I get from UFOs and first contact stuff as well a weird government conspiracies, this book is a nice little intersection for all of those things.

In this book, though, it's about the federal government allegedly actively waging a disinformation campaign with one man who was seeing more than he should have near a military base. The lengths and the depth of the disinformation campaign are impressive on their own, and the end result is something both fascinating and infuriating, given the source of the disinformation.

The book itself is a pretty quick, straightforward read, and that's probably where the flaw is. Little effort is made to make this an engaging read as much as a straightforward popcorn flick, and that's unfortunate because there are other books like it that make for a more compelling narrative with the description of the events. Still, there's a fair amount of meat here, and a fairly fascinating take on a piece of American lore that gets basically zero play.

Worth a read if you like UFOs and such, but far from a necessary one.

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