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
2 6cc. ct P.OFORN Chapter 1 By I 949 the Soviet Union and the states of Eastern Europe had been effectively curtained off from 1the outside world, and the Sov iet military carried out i ts planning. production. and deployment activi ties with the utmost secrecy. All Soviet strategic capabilities bomber forces, ballistic missiles. submarine forces, and nuclear weap ons plants-were concealed from outside observation. The Soviet air defense system, a prime consideration in determining US retaliatory policies, was also largely an unknown factor. Tight security along the Soviet Bloc borders severely curtailed the movement of human intelligence sources. In addition. the Soviet Union made its conventional means of communication-telephone, telegraph, and radio-telephone-mo re secure, thereby greatly reduc ing the intelligence available from tlhese sources. The stringent secu rity measures imposed by the Communist Bloc nations effectively blunted traditional methods for gathering intelligence: secret agents using covert means to communicate intell igence, travelers to and from target areas who could be asked to keep their eyes open and re port their observations later, wiretaps and other eavesdropping meth ods. and postal intercepts. Indeed, the entire panoply of intelligence tradecraft seemed ineffective against the Soviet Bloc, and no other methods were available. Early Postwar Aerial Reconnaissance Although at the end of World War II the Un ited States had captured large quantities of German photos and documents on the Soviet Union, this material was rapidly becoming outdated. The main source of current intelligence on the Soviet Union's military installations was interrogation of prisoners of war returning from Soviet captivity. To obtain information about Soviet sci,entitic progress, the intelligence community established several programs to debrief German scientists who had been taken to the Soviet Vinion after the end of the war but were now being allowed to leave.~ : A t the end of World War II. th<! Bri tish had e:stablished Project DRAGON to g:iin infor. mation from German scientists who had work,:d on the Peenernunde rocket project. and the term DRAGON later was used to refer to individuals possessing scientific or technical information. In 1948 the US Air Force set up Project WRINGER in Germany to gather intt:lligence on the Soviet Union from defecto1rs and refugees: th is project was later ab sorbed into the combined armed forces/CIA Detector Reception Center (DRC). which b<! gan operations in February 1951. In October 1951. a separate organization 10 exploit individuals with scientific or technical backgrou1nds. especially German scientists who had worked inside the Soviet Union. c:ime into existence. This organiz:ition was known :is the Returnee Exploitation Group ( REG) and was located in Fra~kfurt By 1958 the flow of s,.i,-orisrs ~as so small that the REG merged wi·th the DRC.[ ) he Defecwr Receprio11 Center Germany. 1951 w /967. Clandestine Service Historical Series CSHP-41 (CIA: History Staff.. 1972). pp. 5-6. 29-30 (S). I
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Official release, from the pursue 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.