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Okay - I just sought and obtained the following 'official dope' on Roswell:

The initial Roswell story was based on the crash of a balloon used to study radioactivity in the atmosphere. At the time (in 1947) it was a classified program called Project Mogul. The debris which was found was positively identified as balloon remains, along with some radar reflectors.
The incident was blown out of proportion at the time because it happened to coincide with the first "flying saucer" sighting to get big media coverage. Subsequently, the whole thing was forgotten for 30 years, not even making it onto the "Top 100 UFO sightings" list put out in the 70s.
Then, in 1978, the National Inquirer published a story on Roswell. Witnesses suddenly started popping out of the woodwork with stories of alien bodies and military conspiracies, which brings us to where we are today.
The Pentagon thoroughly investigated Roswell and published two reports, the most recent called Roswell: Case Closed in 1997.
Of course, the UFO nutters claim that the Pentagon is just part of the conspiracy, so there's no hope of convincing them merely by presenting a detailed report with all the evidence, is there?

Addendum, the report titled:

   REPORT OF AIR FORCE RESEARCH REGARDING THE
   "ROSWELL INCIDENT"
   July 1994

From: www.af.mil/lib/roswell.html

The following from the EXECUTIVE SUMMARY is excerpted from the report for convenience of readers and lurkers on FR. Consult the link above for the full report.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The "Roswell Incident" refers to an event that supposedly happened in July, 1947, wherein the Army Air Forces (AAF) allegedly recovered remains of a crashed "flying disc" near Roswell, New Mexico.
In February, 1994, the General Accounting Office (GAO), acting on the request of a New Mexico Congressman, initiated an audit to attempt to locate records of such an incident and to determine if records regarding it were properly handled.
Although the GAO effort was to look at a number of government agencies, the apparent focus was on the Air Force. SAF/AAZ , as the Central Point of Contact for the GAO in this matter, initiated a systematic search of current Air Force offices as well as numerous archives and records centers that might help explain this matter. Research revealed that the "Roswell Incident" was not even considered a UFO event until the 1978-1980 time frame. Prior to that, the incident was dismissed because the AAF originally identified the debris recovered as being that of a weather balloon.
Subsequently, various authors wrote a number of books claiming that, not only was debris from an alien spacecraft recovered, but also the bodies of the craft's alien occupants. These claims continue to evolve today and the Air Force is now routinely accused of engaging in a "cover-up" of this supposed event.
Consequently, efforts were intensified by Air Force researchers at numerous locations where records for the period in question were stored.
The records reviewed did not reveal any increase in operations, security, or any other activity in July, 1947, that indicated any such unusual event may have occurred.
Records were located and thoroughly explored concerning a then-TOP SECRET balloon project, designed to attempt to monitor Soviet nuclear tests, known as Project Mogul.
Additionally, several surviving project personnel were located and interviewed, as was the only surviving person who recovered debris from the original Roswell site in 1947, and the former officer who initially identified the wreckage as a balloon. Comparison of all information developed or obtained indicated that the material recovered near Roswell was consistent with a balloon device and most likely from one of the Mogul balloons that had not been previously recovered. Air Force research efforts did not disclose any records of the recovery of any "alien" bodies or extraterrestrial materials.