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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…
CO 5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
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One reason why
the steady increase in
evidenced by its success in
along
activirY
overflights were stopped was
ability to track and engage U-2s, as
owning five U-2s. By 1968
were keeping a close watch on
and actively tracked U-2s as soon as
they became airborne. me u-hs then had to face a growing PRC air
defense system that not only consisted of SA-2 missiles but also the
r"----1fast and high-flying MiG-21. MiG-21 pilots had become
adept at the power-zoom technique and w re threatening almost every
U-2 mission. The risks to U-2s now seemed too great.°
The decision to end Asian overflights was also rooted in the
Johnson administration's change in its whole approach to the war in
Indochina in the spring of 1968. On 31 March 1968, the President
limited the bombing of North Vietnam in order to improve the
chances for peace talks. The end of flights over
T-lwas viewed as another way to improve me peace process.
---"--9ereeat„
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.