No one smart ever believed that. Dumb people believed (and still do) that. Politicians just seized the opportunity to score some points. Same thing happens now with different topics.
Let us not judge those people as dumb please. I believed so because my parents, teachers and other government experts who visited school told me the same and I had no intention to find out myself.
It is only in modern times as I read more I learned the truth. Not everyone has time to educate themselves on these issues which many not concern them.
