Well, has there ever been a famous conspiracy theory that was widely dismissed at the time as being the work of idiots, to one that was later proven beyond reasonable doubt to have been correct?
Maybe not exactly what you’re thinking about, but I’ve lately noted how well the cover-up of the Catholic priest sex scandal by the Church worked for many, many decades. Thousands of victims were ignored/paid off/etc while the hierarchy of the Church simply shifted pedophile priests from parish to parish.
Ten or fifteen years ago if someone had alleged a massive cover-up of a sexual scandal in the Church he or she might have been looked at as a ‘conspiracy theorist,’ no?
Oh well. Like I said, maybe not quite you were looking for…
Does the Dreyfus Affair count as a conspiracy theory?
We’re all waiting on Arsene Wenger…
Right. A conspiracy isn’t really the same thing as a conspiracy theory.
Was there ever a theory that the battleship Maine wasn’t really blown up by the Spanish? I mean right after it happened.
Watergate? The cover-up went right to the Oval office. The first hints of the cover-up going so high seemed ridiculous. IIRC tho, fairly early there were “wackos” and heavy partisans hinting that it did.
How about the Tuskegee Experiment?
Or the Iran-Contra affair?
I dunno, though. You say “conspiracy theory” and little WACKO! WACKO! WACKO! bells go off in my head, like the people who thought back in '80, speaking of Iran, that Carter and the Ayatollah were in cahoots over the hostage crisis. Those things which have been proven correct lose the luster of conspiracy theories and become simply conspiracies–from today’s perspective, it’s difficult to frame most (proven) conspiracies as ever having been the work of wackos.
Maybe not conspiracy theories but for decades, 2 industries insisted on the “safety” of their products knowing full well they were dangerous:
- tobacco
- asbestos
Which is?
The U.S. Public Health Service studied black men with syphillis. No treatment or information. They just tracked what the disease did.
That particular theory was about Reagan.
There was indeed one about Reagan and the Ayatollah, Curt, but I do mean Carter…During the winter of 79-80, perhaps as late as the summer of 80 as well, there was a theory, less widespread and by now clearly untrue, which assumed that
–Khomeini had taken the hostages with the full intent of giving them back a few months later, thereby looking at once ferocious (to shore up his fundamentalist anti-Western base) and statesmanlike (to reassure the rest of the world);
–Carter had allowed the hostages to be taken so that he could spring them through masterful negotiation, thereby looking, well, masterful.
I remember seeing posters to that effect in Manhattan, and hearing the theory bandied about on my college campus by some members of the lunatic fringe.
As for Reagan…you mean he DIDN’T? 
There a minor one-person one I’ve heard about. I believe from memory it was shortly after WWII. A senior official in the US department of the Navy - may even have been the secretary - was convinced he was being followed, having his phone tapped, all that kind of stuff.
No-one believed him and he was hauled off to the insane asylum. After a while in there he committed suicide, I think by jumping out a window.
Years later it turned out he had been followed, by Israeli intelligence. Not because they wished him harm, but to do (IIRC) with some fear over the creation of Israel, I forget what the fear was or what connection it had with the US Navy.
I’m sure I have the story at home somewhere but no idea in what book.
The theory that Enron manipulated California’s energy markets for its own evil money-making ends was once widely derided as belonging in tinfoil hat territory. Events have since proven the charges to be accurate.
There’s an article in the September Harper’s Magazine by Gatto, “Against School”, that’s a hum-dinger. It’s not on the Web, get the mag.