Documents / FOIA release
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."
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED Secret Chapter 3 153 Abdel Nasser overthrew the Government of Iraq and assassinated the royal family. Long concerned by the growing influence of Nasser, who had close ties to the Soviet Union and now headed both Egypt and Syria in the new United Arab Republic, President Eisenhower de- cided that US intervention was necessary to stabilize the situation in Lebanon and to show Nasser that the United States was willin g to use force to defend its vital interests in the region. Before intervening in Lebanon, the United States consulted with the United Kingdom, which also decided to intervene in the Middle East by sending para- troopers to assist the Government of Jordan on 17 July. With US Marines and Army troops deployed in a potentially hostile situation in Lebanon. US military commanders and intelli- gence community analysts immediately requested tactical reconnais- sance flights to look for threats to the US units and evidence that other Middle Eastern countries or the Soviet Union might be prepar- ing to intervene. The U-2s of Detachment B in Turkey carried out these missions. Because tactical reconnaissance required an immediate readout of _the films taken, the Photographic Intelligence Center (the new name for the Photo-Intelli gence Division from August 1958) quickly reopened the film-developing unit at Adana and staffed it with lab technicians and photointerpreters. Throughout the summer of 1958. Detachment B U-2s brought back photography of military camps, air- fields, and ports of those Mediterranean countries receiving Soviet arms. The detachment also kept a close watch on Egyptian-based Soviet submarines, which posed a threat to US 6th Fleet ships in the Mediterranean. In addition, U-2s flew occasional electronic intelli- gence collection missions along the Soviet border and over the Black Sea without entering Soviet airspace. In late August, as the crisis in the Middle East eased, the United States began withdrawing its 14,300 troops. It was not until 25 October, however, that the last American soldier left Lebanon.'7 Ambrose. Eisenhower: The President. pp. 462-473. Ell 12958 1.6(dilll>1010.425Yrs ISI UNCLASSIFIED
Not linked to a story yet.
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.