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 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. 11 …At great risk, US Air Force and Navy aircraft had been conducting peripheral reconnaissance and shallow…
  • p. 16 …As a result, in the late 1940s, the US Air Force and Navy began trying to…
  • p. 17 …Two months later, on 7 October 1952, Soviet fighter aircraft stalked and shot down a US…
  • p. 72 On 29 April 1955, Richard Bissell signed an agreement with the Air Force and the Navy…
  • p. 94 …The committee issued its list of targets for the use of the entire intelligence community using…
  • p. 147 …The Agency then turned to the Navy, which granted permission for Detachment C to use the…
  • p. 180 …James Doolittle urged President Eisenhower to use overflights of the Soviet Union to the maximum degree…
  • p. 223 …returned by Air Force and Navy reconnaissance aircraft. President Kennedy used NPIC photographs to illustrate his…
  • p. 273 …Charyk, and his Navy counterpart, Garrison Norton. Designers from several aircraft manufacturers also attended some of…
  • p. 283 …This engine had originally been developed for the Navy's large, jet-powered flying boat, the…
  • p. 297 …The need for additional buildings on the base was met by the Navy. Three surplus Navy…
  • p. 298 …After hearing Bissell and Holcomb's suggestion that the J58 might be used in future Navy…
  • p. 348 …Following modifications to make System-VII suitable for use by the Navy, the designation was changed…
  • p. 353 …AQUILINE prototype at Randsburg Wash on the US Navy's Naval Ordnance Test Station at China…
  • p. 401 …328 US Marine Corps Reserve 14 US Military Academy at West Point 329 US Navy Chief…
Secret NOFORN

Bibliography

"Mystery of the RB-47." Newsweek, 25 July 1960, pp. 36-37.

"Nikita and the RB-47." Time, 25 July 1960, pp. 30-31.

"Office of Special Activities History, April 1969 to Phase-Out." (draft) (CIA: DS&T, 1974), chap. 3, pp. 36-42 (Top Secret Codeword).

Pero, Richard K. "Message Received—Unfortunately." Studies in Intelligence 27 (Winter 1983): p. 29 (Secret).

Pocock, Chris. Dragon Lady: The History of the U-2 Spyplane. Shrewsbury, England: Airlife, 1989.

Powers, Francis Gary, with Curt Gentry. Operation Overflight. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, 1970.

Powers, Thomas. The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.

Prados, John. Presidents' Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations Since World War II. New York: William Morrow, 1986.

. The Soviet Estimate: U.S. Intelligence Analysis and Russian Military Strength. New York: Dial Press, 1982.

Covert Support to Indonesian Revolutionary Government, 1957-1958. 2 vols. Clandestine Service Historical Series, CSHP-53. CIA: History Staff, 1970 (Secret).

"Red Air Force: The World's Biggest." Newsweek, 23 August 1954, pp. 28-33.

Richelson, Jeffrey. American Espionage and the Soviet Target. New York: William Morrow, 1987.

"Russia Parades Airpower as 'Big Stick'." Aviation Week, 28 June 1954, p. 15.

Low-Level Technical Reconnaissance over Mainland China (1955-66). Clandestine Services Historical Program, CSHP-2.348. CIA: History Staff, 1972 (Secret).

Stanley, Roy M., II. World War II Photo Intelligence. New York: Scribners, 1981.

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About this file

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