Documents / FOIA release

The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; the U-2 and Oxcart Programs, 1954-1974

Central Intelligence Agency · 1900-01-01 · 406 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This is a 1992 CIA History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, originally classified Secret NOFORN and approved for release in 2013. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974 and the two aircraft it developed, the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. The history covers the U-2 overflights of the Soviet Union, the 1960 downing of Francis Gary Powers and later operations in Asia and Latin America. It also includes a section on U-2s, UFOs and Operation BLUE BOOK.

  • p. 143 …Air Force contract to evaluate radars, EG&G operated a small testing facility at Indian Springs…
  • p. 244 …Then in August 1964, following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the Air Force assumed responsibility for…
  • p. 381 …232 Indian Springs, Nevada 274, 130, 132 Indonesia 211-212, 214, 319 Indonesian Air Force 212…

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

## Secret NOFORN

MRBM Medium-range ballistic missile

NACA National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

NAS Naval air station

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NIE National Intelligence Estimate

NPIC National Photographic Interpretation Center

NSA National Security Agency

NSC National Security Council

NSCID National Security Council Intelligence Directive

ODM Office of Defense Mobilization

ORR Office of Research and Reports

OSA Office of Special Activities

OSI Office of Scientific Intelligence

PBCFIA President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities

P-E Perkin-Elmer Company

PFIAB President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

PI Photointerpreter

PIC Photographic Intelligence Center

PID Photo-Intelligence Division

PSAC President's Science Advisory Committee

RAF Royal Air Force

RFP Request for proposal

SAB Scientific Advisory Board (USAF)

SAC Science Advisory Committee

SAC Strategic Air Command

SA/PC/DCI Special Assistant to the DCI for Planning and Coordination

SAM Surface-to-air missile

SEI Scientific Engineering Institute

SENSINT Sensitive intelligence (USAF)

SLAR Side-looking aerial radar

TAS True air speed

TCP Technological Capabilities Panel

USIB United States Intelligence Board

WADC Wright Air Development Command (USAF)

WRSP Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, Provisional

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About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.