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."
“Sea”17 pages
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED -Swere‘ALQEQIIL Chapter 4 182 ED 129581.61d1111>1018<25Yrs Japanese Government, faced with growing anti-American sentiment and complaints in the press about the presence of "spyplanes" on Japanese territory, asked the United States to remove the U-2s. The very next day the CIA closed Detachment C; its U-2s were disman- tled and returned to the United States aboard C-124s.37 In the midst of the furor in Japan, on 1 July 1960, just six weeks after the Paris Summit, Soviet fighter aircraft shot down an Air Force RB-47 on an electronic intelligence collection mission over interna- tional waters near the Soviet Union's Kola Peninsula. Two survivors were captured. The Soviet Union claimed that the aircraft had vio- lated its airspace, while the United States denounced the Soviets for downing the plane over international waters. The acrimony exacer- bated an already tense international atmosphere.8 One additional blow to the U-2 program came in the summer of 1960. NASA, concerned about the damage to its reputation from its involvement in the U-2 affair and hoping to obtain international coop- eration for its space program. decided to end its support of the cover story that U-2s were conducting weather research under its auspices." These developments resulted in a complete halt to all U-2 opera- tions from overseas bases for more than six months. Pilots and air- craft from Detachments B and C were consolidated into Detachment G at Edwards Air Force Base, California, 1Detachment G now comprised eight pilots from Detachment B and three pilots from Detachment C. Because Powers' capture had compromised Project CHALICE, the Agency assigned a new cryptonym to the U-2 effort; henceforth, it was called Project IDEALIST.' " OSA Chronology, p. 28 (TS Codeword)• "Mystery of the R13-47," Newsweek. 25 July 1960, pp. 36-37; "Nikita and the RB-47," Time, 25 July 1960. pp. 30-31. At a meeting of high-level CIA. NASA. and State Department officials on 31 May 1960, NASA was willing to continue its association with U-2 flights for the time being. but the Administrator of NASA, Dr. Keith Glennan, believed that his agency "would be well ad- vised to disengage from the U-2 program as rapidly as possible." James A. Cunningham. Memorandum for the Record, "Telephone Conversation with Dr. Hugh Dryden, Deputy Director, NASA. - June 1960, DPD chrono 15 0. OSA records (S). OSA History, chap. 12, pp. 47-49; chap. 16. p. 10 (TS Codeword). 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.