Documents / FOIA release
This is a CIA History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, published in Washington in 1992 and approved for release in 2011. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974, which developed and flew the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. It traces the U-2's development, the overflights of the Soviet Union, the downing of Francis Gary Powers on 1 May 1960, and later operations. One section is titled U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK.
“Headquarters”18 pages
Noronai Chapter 3 139 CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED nuclear device. These photographs also revealed evidence of a recent, low-yield, above-ground nuclear test I On its way to Semipalatinsk, the 21 August mission flew a search pattern over the western end of Lake Balkash looking for an- other Soviet missile-related installation and made the first photo- graphs of what was later determined to be the new missile test center at Saryshagan. This facility was used to test radars against incoming missiles fired from Kapustin Yar, 1,400 miles to the west. Saryshagan later became the center for the development of the Soviet Union's ad- vanced antiballistic missile (ABM) weapon system. On 23 August 1957, DDCI Cabe11, Richard Bissell, and Air Force Chief of Staff Twining met with President Eisenhower to report on the results of Operation SOFT TOUCH. They showed the President some of the photographic results of the earlier missions and reported on the effects of the antiradar measures. Although the antiradar measures had not proved successful, the photographic yield from the missions was extremely valuable. Bissell then informed the President that the SOFT TOUCH operation was just about to con- clude with the transfer of the aircraft back to Adana. He asked per- mission for one of the U-2s to make another overflight of the Soviet Union on this return trip, but the President denied the request, not wishing to conduct any more overflights than were necessary:° ED 129581.6Idlill>101010<25Yrs IS) " Mission folder 4045 (20 August 1957) and 4050 (21 August 1957), OSA records TS Codeword). Andrew .1. Goodpaster, Memorandum for the Record, 23 August 1957, WHOSS, Alpha, DDEL (TS). UNCLASSIFIED
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.