Documents / FOIA release

CIA/CSI/ History Staff Monograph, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and Oxcart Programs, 16 July 2002.

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, written in 1992 and approved for release in 2011. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974 and its two aircraft, the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. It follows their development, the overflights of the Soviet Union, the downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, and later operations. One section is titled "U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK."

  • p. 134 …By the end of the month, foreign troops began evacuating Egyptian terri- tory, and the pressure…
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Chapter 3
117
USA records,
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
The Anglo-French
military buildup greatly imtated President Eisenhower, who consid-
ered these activities a violation of the 1950 Tripartite Declaration, in
which the United States, the United Kingdom, and France had agreed
to maintain the status quo in armaments and borders in the Middle
East.[
U-2 photography continued to keep the President and other key
officials well informed about the progress of the crisis.
Tecretary
of State John Foster Dulles told the President on 28 October that he
believed an Israeli attack on Jordan was imminent, adding that he
thought the British and French would take advantage of such an at-
tack to occupy the Suez Canal.52
The 10-day Middle East war began on the afternoon of 29
- October 1956 with Israeli paratroop drops in the Sinai peninsula, fol-
lowed by mobile columns striking deep into Egyptian territory.I
where he
photographed black puffs of smoke from the fighting between Israel
and Egypt. Adana-based U-2s were in the air for the next two days
filming the Suez Canal areak
The United Kingdom and France entered the fray on the evening
of 31 October with bombing raids against major Egyptian airfields.
The Anglo-French bombing campaign continued for the next 48
rhours. Early on the morning of 1 November, an Adana-based U-2, i-
loted by
flew soiiilL where he made several passes to obtain
complete coverage of the Israeli-Egyptian fighting there.CHe then
headed west to Cair5; passing directly over the main Egyptian airbase
" Lundahl and Brugioni interview (TS Codeword).
Telephone calls, 28 October 1956. DDE Diary, DDEL.
E0 12958 1.61[0111>1010101810111101010<25Yrs
(Si
Ts_raiNtission folder 1314 (30 October 1956).
eword).
S et
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.