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."
“Headquarters”18 pages
•SeepatJULZOLIN Chapter 4 181 005653421 UNCLASSIFIED Eisenhower stated that overflights had been suspended and would not be resumed, but he refused to make a formal apology. At that point the summit ended, as did all hopes for a visit to the Soviet Union by President Eisenhower. THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE OVERSEAS DETACHMENTS The loss of Powers' U-2 ultimately resulted in the end of Detachment B in Turkey. As soon as the Development Projects Division learned that Powers was alive in Soviet hands, it immediately evacuated the protect the secret of their involvement in the project. Froject °mails hoped that flights might eventually re- sume from Adana, but President Eisenhower's order ending over- flights of the Soviet Union made this very unlikely. Less than four weeks later, a coup ousted the government of Turkish Premier Acinan Menderes on the night of 27 May 1960. Because the new government had not been briefed on the U-2, Project Headquarters refused to al- low any U-2 flights from Adana, even those necessary for maintain- ing the aircraft's airworthiness. As a result, no more U-2s flew out of Adana. Instead of being ferried home, three of the four remaining, U-2s were disassembled and loaded aboard C-124 cargo planes for the return trip to the United States.1n The fourth U-2 remained inside a hangar at Incirlik airbase for several years, looked after by a skeleton crew, in case the Adana in- stallation needed to be reactivated. Finally the decision was made to close down the Adana U-2 facility. During Detachment B's 44 months of active existence, 21 pilots had flown its aircraft, includin and three pilots transferred from the deacti etachthëiifA. Fourteen Detachment B pilots were later assigned to other U-2 detachments, but the closing down of Detachment B marked E0 12958 1.6(d1111>101011110<25Yrs [SI The loss of Powers' U-2, the resultant failure of the Paris Summit, and the end of U-2 operations in Turkey were just the first in a series of setbacks for the U-2 program. On 8 July 1960, the OSA History. chap. 12. pp. 46-47 ITS Codeword). ret 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.