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."

  • p. 18 …Leghorn persuaded his superiors to submit his suggestion to the . Pentagon for funding. He had not…
  • p. 20 …Meanwhile Leghorn, frustrated by the rejection of his original concept, had transferred to the Pentagon in…
  • p. 22 …become the assistant director of Lockheed's Advanced Development Program, was in the Pentagon on business…
  • p. 24 …for the construction and maintenance of 30 aircraft to a group of senior Pentagon officials that…
  • p. 26 …He had been present at Kelly Johnson's presentation on the CL-282 at the Pentagon…
  • p. 27 …with Strong in the Pentagon on 12 May 1954. six days before the Wright Air Development…
  • p. 52 …Late on the morning of 2 December 1954, Dulles told Bissell to go to the Pentagon…
  • p. 91 …1-le then briefed a high-level Pentagon panel that included the Secretary of the Air…
  • p. 92 …After a half hour passed, the base commander called the Pentagon to ask where the crippled…
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-
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Chapter 5
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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

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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.