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."
“Sea”17 pages
- p. 16 …An RB-29 lost in
the Sea of Japan on 13 June 1952 was probably also…
- p. 38 …off to about 6
percent of its sea-level thrust.
Finally, low structural load factors, like…
- p. 75 …with a boiling point of 300T at sea level.
Manufacturing this special fuel required petroleum byproducts…
- p. 80 …heavier
and delivered only 10,200 pounds of thrust at sea level; the resulting
--soarer
UNCLASSIFIED
- p. 89 …that they could not be
flown at sea level faster than 190 knots in smooth air…
- p. 98 …southern Europe and
then across the Black Sea and the desert areas of China. These bal…
- p. 102 …working on a cover story for over-
seas operations. It was important to have a plausible…
- p. 120 …neanteagon •
724744 (8009071 4-92
Finland
Baltic
Sea
ükranian
Italy
ROME
IUMIS
Tunisia Mediterranean Sea
UNCLASSIFIED
- p. 139 …Soviet border from the Black Sea to the Caspian
Sea and on to Afghanistan. The System…
- p. 146 …aircraft made a run over the Black Sea. 'I here were a total of
nine DB…
- p. 148 …space launch taciitty east of
the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. None of the mission planners was…
- p. 158 …it turned
abruptly upward over the Bering Sea just west of Alaska, climbed to
110,000…
- p. 166 …the Soviet border and over the Black
Sea without entering Soviet airspace. In late August, as…
- p. 215 …F"••• N.
' :\ ■
Caribbean Sea
Ceyrnen Islands
M FL)
.r,
Unttad )
' ^
Gulf
of
Mexico NORTH ATLANTIC
OCEAN…
- p. 216 …Isle of
P,floo
Caribbean Sea
•••
Corn. Islands
IWO
Janss
—
200 kilometers
100 200 Miles
".!
SgsgalgOidaRte…
- p. 217 SAM Sites in Cuba, August 1962
Caribbean Sea
Gulf
of
Mexico
NORTH
A TLANTIC
OCEAN
9…
- p. 316 …Shortly before Leningrad, the A-12
would head west-southwest down the Baltic Sea, skirting the…
the detachment also provided aircraft tor use by Amencan pi-
lots fling missions in other parts of Asia. Indochina was an area of
particular interest as American involvement there began growing dur-
ED 129581.6Idlill>1010.425Yrs
ISJ
tst3fAL
005653421 UNCLASSIFIED
Chapter 5
230
ED 129581.6U1111>101010<25Yrs
(S1
Between 1962 and 1964, Agency U-2s staged a total of 36 pho-
tographic missions over North and South Vietnam. By April 1964,
however, photographic requirements were changing from strategic re-
connaissance to tactical support as the Viet Cong became more active,
taking advantage of the weakness of the South Vietnamese central
government following the coup that overthrew President Ngo Dinh
Diem in 1963 and subsequent coups by disgruntled army officers.
During this period the South Vietnamese "strategic hamlet" concept
began breaking down, and the Viet Cong forces stepped up the pace
of their attacks. As a result of the increasing level of combat in
Indochina, the USIB gave responsibility for aerial reconnaissance of
the areas where fighting was taking place to the SAC. Henceforth,
SAC U-2s would be used over South Vietnam, parts of Cambodia
UNCLASSIFIED
Not linked to a story yet.
About this file
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.