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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. 11 …At great risk, US Air Force and Navy aircraft had been conducting peripheral reconnaissance and shallow…
  • p. 16 …As a result, in the late 1940s, the US Air Force and Navy began trying to…
  • p. 17 …Two months later, on 7 October 1952, Soviet fighter aircraft stalked and shot down a US…
  • p. 72 …agreement with the Air Force and the Navy (which at that time was also interested in…
  • p. 147 …turned to the Navy, which granted permission for Detachment C to use the Naval Air Station…
  • p. 180 …The Army, Navy, and CIA, however, doubted that any had been deployed, because none could be…
  • p. 223 …by Air Force and Navy reconnais- sance aircraft. President Kennedy used NPIC photographs to illustrate his…
  • p. 273 …Charyk, and his Navy counterpart, Garrison Norton. Designers from several air- craft manufacturers also attended some…
  • p. 283 …This engine had originally been developed for the Navy's large, jet-powered flying boat, the…
  • p. 297 …The need for additional buildings on the base was met by the Navy. Three surplus Navy…
  • p. 298 …After hearing Bissell and Holcomb's suggestion that the J58 might be used in future Navy…
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
Chapter 4
186
snubbed by President Kennedy, who one year earlier had warmly wel-
comed two Air Force RB-47 fliers released by the Soviet Union.
McCone remained hostile to Powers, and in April 1963 he awarded
the Intelligence Star to all of the U-2 pilots except Powers. Finally on
25 April 1965, just two days before McCone's resignation became ef-
fective, Powers received the Star (which was dated 1963 on the back)
from DDCI Marshall S. Carter."
Powers' return from captivity raised the question of what his fu-
ture employment should be. This issue had already been discussed
one year earlier by John N. McMahon, executive officer of the DPD,
who noted that he and Col. Leo P. Geary (the Air Force project offi-
cer) were concerned about a major dilemma for the CIA and the US
Government: I
[012958 1.61d1I11>1010<25Yrs
" OSA History, chap. 14. p. 54 (TS Codeword). Beschloss. Mayday, p. 397.
John N. McMahon to Chief, Cover Staff. DPD. 21 March 1961. Operation
files. OSA records tS).
" OSA History, chap. 14, p. 52 (TS Codeword).
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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.