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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. 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…
005653421 UNCLASSIFIED
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Hiring U-2 Pilots 73
Pilot Training 75
Final Tests of the U-2 76
Three Fatal Crashes in 1956 79
Coordination of Collection Requirements 80
Preparations To Handle the Product of U-2 Missions 82
The Impact of the Air Force Project GENETRIX Balloons 84
AQUATONE Briefings for Selected Members of Congress 88
The U-2 Cover Story 89
+ Chapter 3
U-2 Operations in the Soviet Bloc and Middle East, 1956-1958
The Deployment of Detachment A 94
The Move to Wiesbaden 95
President Eisenhower's Attitude Toward Overflights 96
First Overflights of Eastern Europe 100
First U-2 Flights Over the Soviet Union 104
ED 129581.61dli1l>1045Yrs Soviet Protest Note 109
ED 129581.61061>10<25Yrs The End of the Bomber Gap 111
(SI Tactical Intelligence From U-2s During the Suez Crisis 112
Renewed Overflights of the Soviet Union 122
Radar-Deceptive "Dirty Birds" 128
The New Detachment C 133
135Detachment B Flightstl
139The Decline of Detac mem kt
142
reclining Overflight Activity 143
Concerns About Soviet Countermeasures Against the U-2 147
More Powerful Engines for the U-2 149
Intervention in Lebanon, 1958 152
153
The U-2 Project at the Beginning ot 157
Ilk Chapter 4
The Final Overflights of the Soviet Union, 1959-1960
The U-2 and the "Missile-Gap" Debate 159
The Last Overflight: Operation GRAND SLAM 170
The Aftermath of the U-2 Downing 177
The Withdrawal of the Overseas Detachments 181
The Fate of Francis Gary Powers 183
Changes in Overflight Procedures After May 1960 187
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.