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…
security 2,27,40-41,43,55,59-60,72,81, 94,112,125,127,140,161,167, 185,187-188,191,197,201,209, 212,218,221-222,224,236,256, 273,283-284,294,318,327

Security, Office of 59,112,222

Semipalatinsk, Soviet Union 128,138-139,147,168

SENSINT--Sensitive Intelligence 3

sensors 11,22,241,292,310

Seventh Air Division 89

Severodvinsk, Soviet Union 172, 176

Shanghai, China 222,228,242

sheep-dipping 74

Index

Shell Oil Company 62,328

shellfish toxin 125

Shelton, William

shock wave 290-291

short-range reconnaissance vehicle 342

show trial 183

Shuangchengzi, China 226, 228, 235

shutter assemblies 53

Siberia 3

Sichuan, China 230

Sieker, Robert 131

Sierra snowfield 254

SIGINT Committee 332

Secret NOFORN

Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) 222

"single-pass" mission 306

Sino-Indian border 231-233,319

Sino-Soviet border 336

"Skonk Works"

45

Skunk Works 45,71,132,251,262,273-274

SKYLARK

299

Smithsonian Institution 55

"snap-up"

148

Snark missiles 22

Snider, Sammy V. C. 138

snowmelt 254

SOFT TOUCH 135,139,143

software algorithms 52

solar cells

240

solid-fueled missiles 161,317

sound barrier 289

SOUTH GATE 216

South Vietnam 230-231,243,301,305

Southeast Asia 190,198,216,221,301,310

Sovetskaya Gavan', Soviet Union 144

Soviet Bloc 1-2,4,6,16-20,87,93,112,123 147,152,159,195,197,211,330

Soviet Communist Party Congress 160

Soviet Far East 134,144

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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.