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. 12 …later, at press conferences in February and July 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson revealed the existence…
  • p. 40 …MIT Press. 1977), p. 68: Beschloss, Maplay, p. 74: TCP Report. pp. 185-186 (S). UNCLASSIFIED
  • p. 98 …The Soviet Union sent strongly worded protest notes to the United States and the nations from…
  • p. 102 …not only press releases and the public line to be taken, but also the suspension of…
  • p. 107 …The "provisional" designation gave the U-2 detachments greater security because provisional Air Force units did…
  • p. 112 …at a press conference that the Soviet Union might be ahead of the United States in…
  • p. 125 …Dial Press, 1982), pp. 45-47. Lundahl and Brugioni interview (TS Codeword). UNCLASSIFIED
  • p. 174 …McElroy stressed that the gap would be temporary and that at its end the United States…
  • p. 195 …in the press about the presence of "spyplanes" on Japanese territory, asked the United States to…
  • p. 198 …DCI records (S). " United States Congress, Senate. Foreign Relations Committee, Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign…
  • p. 307 …By 1962 the United States had become aware of the effectiveness of a new Soviet radar…
  • p. 315 …To preserve the secrecy of the OXCART program, the Air Force informed the press that an…
  • p. 328 …at times when the press and Congress alleged that the United States was falling behind the…
  • p. 362 …MIT Press, 1977. Kistiakowsky. George B. A Scientist at the White House. Cambridge: Harvard University Press…
Soviet Myasishchev-4 bomber
(the Bison)
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
"."'"reZrtrt-4■11:),Efe&
Chapter 1
21
The Air Force Intelligence Systems Panel
_-
Even before the publication of photographs of the Bison raised fears
that the Soviet bomber force might eventually surpass that of the
United States, the Air Force had already established a new advisory
body to look for ways to implement the main recommendation of the
BEACON HILL Report—the construction of high-flying aircraft and
high-acuity cameras. Created in July 1953, the Intelligence Systems
Panel (ISP) included several experts from the BEACON HILL Study
Group: Land, Overhage, Donovan, and Miller. At the request of the
Air Force, the CIA also participated in the panel, represented by
Edward L. Allen of the Office of Research and Reports (ORR) and
Philip Strong of the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI).36
The chairman of the new panel was Dr. James G. Baker, a re-
search associate at the Harvard College Observatory. Baker had been
involved in aerial reconnaissance since 1940, when he first advised
the Army Air Corps on ways to improve its lenses. He then estab-
lished a full-scale optical laboratory at Harvard—the Harvard
University Optical Research Laboratory—to produce high-quality
ED 129581.6111111)>10<25Yrs
IS)
Memorandum for Robert Amory. Jr.. Deputy Director. Intelligence from Edward L.
Allen, Chief. Economic Research, ORR and Philip G. Strung. Chief, Operations Staff,
OSI. "Meeting of the Intelligence Systems Panel of the Scientific Advisory Board.
USAF," 26 August 1953. OS( (OSWR) records. S).
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.