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/specialCollection/MissileGap/1992/1992-04-01.pdf

Central Intelligence Agency · 406 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

  • p. 13 …Without their help a good deal of this story could never have become known. The assistance…
  • p. 44 …the CL-282; in fact, there may never have been a formal decision as such. In…
  • p. 74 …fly, Lockheed engineers had to solve problems never before encountered. Among these problems was the need…
  • p. 84 …Flight tests continued, with the U-2 ascending to alti- tudes never before attained in sustained…
  • p. 102 …put aside for further thought (which it never received), and Bissell's weather research cover re…
  • p. 138 …Then in January 1960, the commander of Detachment B, raised an important question that had never…
  • p. 147 …Peninsula, because of bad weather and, therefore, never entered Soviet airspace. A second attempt to photograph…
  • p. 159 …Six of the men on board were killed and the remaining 11 were never heard from…
  • p. 160 …Although this new Berlin crisis never became as threatening as the blockade of 1948-49, President…
  • p. 165 …The Air Force never equipped its orig- inal U-2s with the J75 engines." Detachment C…
  • p. 189 …Powers never made it past Sverdlovsk. Four and a half hours into the mission, an SA…
  • p. 208 …very good reason, and such a situation never developed, in part because satellite photography gradually began…
  • p. 210 …Since this never happened, Francis Gary Powers' flight on I May 1960 proved to be the…
  • p. 223 …Responsibility for photo- graphic coverage of Cuba remained with the Air Force; Agency pilots never flew…
  • p. 264 Sratrt.11/Qt2.1....31■1 Chapter 5 251 005653421 UNCLASSIFIED There was never another Agency…
  • p. 290 …the OXCART aircraft for its own use. never adopted the laminated vertical stabilizers.'4 THE OXCART…
  • p. 294 …Scott employed concepts never be- fore used in camera systems. These included the use of a…
  • p. 298 …As it turned out, the J58 was never used in a Navy aircraft. OSA History. chap…
  • p. 299 …This new delay was caused by leaking fuel tanks, a problem that would never be solved…
  • p. 313 …even though the SKYLARK contingency plan was never put into effect. Since U-2s continued to…
  • p. 316 …Moreover, the Soviets never operated the radars in the tracking and locktin modes, a fact that…
  • p. 326 …collector of strategic intelligence, the OXCART was never used for this purpose. Its brief deployment was…
  • p. 328 …Yet, the President never went so far as to eliminate the overflight program. As Commander in…
  • p. 333 …its speed and altitude have never been equaled. The development of this aircraft also led to…
Chapter 5
209
005653421 UNCLASSIFIED
perceived as a jurisdictional dispute. Presidential Assistant for
National Security Affairs McGeorge Bundy told DDCI Carter that
"the whole thing looks to me like two quarreling children." 19
Furthermore, no one wanted to speak out against a decision that the
President had already made.
Once the decision was clearly irrevocable, the Agency gave its
complete support to the Air Force in preparing for the upcoming
overflight. A SAC U-2 pilot had already arrived unannounced at the
CIA's U-2 Detachment at Edwards Air Force Base on 11 October, and
the CIA U-2 detachment put him through a hasty training program to
familiarize him with the U-2C. By Sunday, 14 October 1962, the
weather over Cuba had cleared, and the first SAC overflight of the
island took place.
When the U-2 returned, its film was rushed to the National
Photographic Interpretation Center. By the evening of 15 October,
photointerpreters had found evidence of the presence of MRBMs in
the San Cristobal area. NPIC Director Arthur Lundahl immediately
notified DDI Ray Cline, who in turn notified DDCI Carter (DCI
McCone had again left town). As the readout progressed and the evi-
dence became firmer, the DDI notified National Security Adviser
Bundy and Roger Hilsman of the Department of State's Bureau of
Intelligence and Research, who informed Secretary of State Dean
Rusk. On the following morning, 16 October, DDCI Carter briefed
the President on the results of the 14 October mission.'"
Now that the presence of Soviet medium-range surface-to-sur-
face missiles in Cuba had been confirmed, the rules for U-2 mission
approval changed. The Strategic Air Command received blanket ap-
proval to fly as many missions as needed to cover Cuba completely,
without again consulting the Special Group. During the week that fol-
lowed the discovery of the missiles, SAC U-2s conducted multiple
missions each day (see map on page 203). U-2 photography was sup-
plemented by low-level photography taken by high-performance
Navy and Air Force aircraft. Throughout the remainder of the Cuban
Missile Crisis, the Agency's U-2 pilots remained idle, but the
photointerpreters at NPIC did yeoman service in studying the
E0129581.61[11111>10<25Yrs
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Telephone conversation between DDC I Carter and McGeorge Bundy, 12 October 1962,
DCI records .\ l(TS Codeword).
For a more detailed account of NPIC's discovery of the Soviet missiles in Cuba, see
Dino Brugioni, The Cuban Missile Crisis—Phase I. 29 August-16 October 1962, DDS&T
Historical Series. NPIC-I (CIA: NPIC, 1971) (S).
Se
UNCLASSIFIED

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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.