Documents / FOIA release

/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. 4 …Intelligence Systems Panel 21 British Overflight of Kapustin Yar 23 The Intelligence Systems Panel and the…
  • p. 29 …Operations Staff, OSI, "Overflight of Kapustin Yar." 15 October 1954, OSI (OSWR) records TS, down- graded…
  • p. 36 …British Overflight of Kapustin Yar The British were also working on high-altitude reconnaissance air- craft…
  • p. 37 …its members about the British overflight of Kapustin Yar because they were not cleared for this…
  • p. 122 …bomber, similar to the RAF overflight of Kapustin Yar in 1953. The US reply, sent to…
  • p. 152 …This facility was used to test radars against incoming missiles fired from Kapustin Yar, 1,400…
A-12s
005653421 UNCLASSIFIED
Chapter 6
298
EO 129581.6(dli1l>1010<25Yrs
[Si
Defense McNamara told DCI McCone that he doubted that the
OXCART would ever be used and suggested that improvements in
1 jwould very likely eliminate the need for the
expensive OXCART program. Strongly disagreeing, McCone told
McNamara that he had every intention of using OXCART aircraft to
fly over the Soviet Union.
McCone raised this issue with President Kennedy in April 1963,
at a time when the nation's I were experiencing a great
number of failures and the intelligence community was clamoring for
better photography to confirm or disprove allegations of the existence
of an antiballistic missile system at Leningrad. Unconvinced by
McCone's arguments for OXCART overflights, President Kennedy
expressed the hope that some means might be devised for improving
instead. 9'
"'John A. NIcCone, Memorandum for the Record. ''Summary of meeting with Secretary
McNamara and Secretary Gilpatric. General Carter and Mr. McCone on 3 July 1962."
6 July 1962. DC1 records (S): McCone. Memorandum for the File. "Meeting with the
President-5:30-15 Apr 1963 in Palm Beach. Florida. - DCI records (S).
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.