My gut keeps telling me that (as you have said) the government has been hiding their involvement in something unbelievable massive re: this subject...something truly mindblowing.
Btw—a two hour podcast that summarizes the history of UFOs and includes the Secret Space Program can be found here:
https://podbay.fm/p/journey-to-truth
Search for episode:
UFO Disclosure Timeline
The modern era discussion (1947+) begins at the one hour mark.
I do not agree with every claim they make—the Kecksburg, PA incident was a US spy satellite that crashed (for example) and the Serpo project claims are not well sourced imho.
That said—I believe their “counter narrative” is about 90% correct.