Documents / Official release
This is a Secret History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach of the Central Intelligence Agency, published in 1992. It gives a history of the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974, covering the development and operation of the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART aircraft. It covers overflights of the Soviet Union, the 1960 downing of Francis Gary Powers, and later operations. One section is titled "U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK."
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 This CIA History Staff document chronicles the complete history of the U-2 and OXCART (A-12) high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft programs from 1954 to 1974, detailing their development, operations over the Soviet Union and other targets worldwide, the famous downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, organizational reforms following that incident, and the eventual transfer of operations from CIA to Air Force control. A more redacted version of this document has been available on CIA's public website.
“The Advance”34 pages
125 warnings to all pilots about the danger of opening the helmet face plate at high altitudes, several pilots were known to do so. Some ate candy bars; Vito favored lemon drops. On the morning of 10 December, while Vito was undergoing prebreathing, the Air Force en listed man who oversaw his preflight regimen placed an L-pill in the righthand knee pocket of Vito's flight suit, unaware that this pocket also contained Vito's supply of lemon drops. After he took off. Vito began indulging in his habit of sucking lemon drops. About midway into the mi ssion, he opened his faceplate and popped into his mouth what he thought was another lemon drop. After closing the faceplate, he began sucking on the object and thought it strange that it hard no flavor and was much smoother than the previous lemon drops. Although tempted to bite down, Vito decided instead to reopeIn his faceplate and see what it was he had in his mouth. Spicting the object into his hand, he saw that he had been sucking on the L-pi ll wi1th its lethal contents of potassium cyanide. Just a thin layer of glass. had stood between him and death. The loss of his aircraft over Bulgaria would have exposed the U-2 program to worldwide publicity and would probably have resulted in an early end to overflights."" . . . _ Detachment A's security officer overheard Vito relating: the L-pill story to a fellow pilot several days later and promptly reported the conversation to headquarters. When details of Vito's close call reached Washington. James Cunningham immediately ordered L --pills placed in boxes so that there wou ld be no chance of mistaking them for anything else. The L-pill continued to be available for another three years. Then in January 1960, the commander of Detachmernt B. Col. William Shelton, raised an important question that had niever been considered: what would happen if an L-pill with its volati le con tents accidentally broke inside the cockpit of a U-2? Realizing that such an accident would result i n the death of the pilot, James Cunningham ordered the destruction of all L-pills and then turned to the Technical Services Division (TSO) for a better idea. By this time the state of the art in lethal devices was a needle poisoned with cJ1lgal, an extremely deadly shellfish toxi n. The needle was hidden in a tiny hole in a silver dollar supplied by Cunningham. Only one poison--nee dle coin was made because Cunningham decided that, if any pilo1t had to use it because of capture, there would probably not be any more h 6soverfl.1g ts. "' Cunningham interview (TS Codeword); Carmine Vito. interview by Donald E. Welzenbach. Washington, DC. 7 May 1986 (S). ~• Cable from Detachment B to Development Projects Division (DPD). 4 January 1960; cabk: from DPD to Detachment 8, 7 January 1960. OSA records, job 67-B-972. box 18, "Operation KNIFE EDGE" (TS Codeword). Sec, et NOFORN Chapter 3
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Official release, from the pursue 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.