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. 22 …Bell was still being developed.'' Air Force headquarters soon approved Martin's proposal to mod- ify…
  • p. 55 CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED E0129581.6(dlill>10<25Yrs ISI personnel divided among project headquarters, a US test…
  • p. 73 …On 3 August 1955, Dulles and Twining met at SAC headquarters in Omaha to sign the…
  • p. 74 …Speech given by Richard Bissell at CIA Headquarters, 12 October 1965 (TS Codeword). " Brig. Gen. Leo…
  • p. 102 …U-2 project officer, the Air Force Headquarters project officer, and NACA's top official, Dr…
  • p. 107 …did not have to report to higher headquarters. WRSP-1, known within the Agency as Detachment…
  • p. 117 …Late on the evening of 3 July, Bissell went to project headquarters in the Matomic Building…
  • p. 127 …The PARAMOUNT Committee worked inside PID headquarters in the Steuart Building. Composed of members from CIA…
  • p. 138 …and prom tly reported the conversation to headquarters. When details of close call reached Washington, James…
  • p. 153 …of Detachment A achieved excellent results, project headquarters had already decided that Western Europe was not…
  • p. 194 …Because the new government had not been briefed on the U-2, Project Headquarters refused to…
  • p. 205 …its own building to the new CIA Headquarters at Langley. Soon afterward, Col. Stanley W. Beerli…
  • p. 312 …that the performance of an A-12 with 175 engines (as suggested by project headquarters for…
  • p. 319 …12958 1.61111111>1010<25Yrs (Si Project Headquarters in Langley_planned and directed all operational BLACK…
  • p. 323 …Project headquarters informed Deputy Defense Secretary Vance on 10 January 1967 that the A- 12s would…
  • p. 324 …President Johnson con- firmed this decision on 21 May.'" - - Project headquarters selected 8 June 1968 as…
  • p. 334 …Air Force personnel served at all levels of the recon- naissance program, from project headquarters to…
  • p. 365 …Speech given by Richard Bissell at CIA Headquarters, 12 October 1965 (Top Secret Codeword). Interview with…
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Appendix B
330
KIEFER, Eugene P.
An Air Force officer with a degree in aeronautical engineering who in
1953 informed a friend at Lockheed of the Air Force's search for a
high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, thus, leading to the initial de-
sign of the CL-282. After leaving the Air Force, Kiefer became
Richard Bissell's technical adviser for the OXCART and
photosatellite programs.
KILLIAN, James R., Jr.
President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Killian
headed a high-level and very secret study of the nation's ability to
withstand a surprise attack. While this project was still under way, he
and Edwin Land persuaded President Eisenhower to support the de-
velopment of a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, the L1-2. Later,
Killian headed Eisenhower's Board of Consultants for Foreign
Intelligence Activities, served as his Cabinet-level science adviser,
and chaired the President's Science Advisory Board. Killian was also
chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board un-
der John F. Kennedy.
LAND, Edwin H.
An extremely talented inventor famous for the development of polar-
izin g filters and the instant-film camera. Land also devoted consider-
able time and energy to voluntary government service. During World
War II, Land worked for the Radiation Laboratories, and after the war
he served on numerous Air Force advisory panels. As the head of the
Technological Capabilitites Panel's study group investigating US in-
telligence-gathering capabilities, Land became a strong advocate of
the development of a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft (the
CL-282) under civilian rather than Air Force control. Land and James
Killian persuaded President Eisenhower to approve the U-2 project
and later the first photosatellite project. Land also served on the
President's Board of Consultants for Foreign Intelligence Activities.
LEGHORN, Richard S.
An MIT graduate in physics, Le ghorn joined the Army Air Force in
1942 and went to work for reconnaissance expert Col. George
Goddard. By the time of the invasion of Europe. Leghorn was chief of
reconnaissance for the 9th Tactical Air Force. After the war, Leghorn
began preaching the need for -pre-D-day" reconnaissance in order to
gather intelligence on the Soviet Bloc. He returned to the Air Force
during the Korean war and later worked for Harold Stassen's
Disarmament Office. In 1956 he became the head of the Scientific
UNCLASSIFIED

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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.