Inviting Bozo the Clown to investigate the crash wouldn't keep people focused in the wrong direction.
“The Air Force knew it was one of their test craft but needed to lend authenticity to the UFO stories to prevent the Russians from knowing what was going on.”
The theory I like best is it was actually a high attitude Russian bomber spy plane that got through and the military and gov’t knew if the American people found out it happened heads would roll and high up careers ruined.
Are you serious or running a gag?
Don’t forget the crash test dummies on board.
They dissected them in front of folks to convince them it was aliens.
;-)