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.
“Nevers”34 pages
154 See, et NOFOAN Chapter 3 become involved in the U-2 project in September 1956, when the United States supplied them with photography from U-2 missions. To handle U-2 material, the British created a new control system, which later merged with the US control system. By 1957 cooperation be tween the United Kingdom and the United States had expanded to include frequent consultation between the requirements and photo interpretation organizations of both countries. James Reber and Arthur Lundahl made periodic trips to the United Kingdom for discussions with Alan Crick's UK Requirements Committee (gener ally known as the Crick Committee, later as the Joint Priorities Committee), the Joint Intelligence Committee, the Joint Air Recon naissance Intelligence Center, and MI-6. 108 The idea of using British pilots in the U-2 program first arose in the spring of 1957, when Richard Bissell-upset that his aircraft had not been allowed to fly over the Soviet Union since the December 1956 standdown-was searching for ways to reduce the political risks of overflights and thus obtain more frequent authorization for mis sions over the Soviet Union. One of his proposals was to use non-US pilots-possibly British-to increase the possibility of plausible de nial in the event of a loss. At a meeting with key CIA, Defense Department, and State Department officials on 6 May 1957, President Eisenhower approved the concept of British participation in the U-2 • IC>'J proJect. During the next six months, Dulles and Bissell met with Sir Dick White, head of MI-6, and Air Vice Marshal William M. L. MacDonald, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff for Intelligence, on sev eral occasions to discuss the proposal in general terms. At first the CIA did not push the proposal too hard because at the same meeting in which he approved British participation, President Eisenhower had consented to the resumption of U-2 missions over the Soviet Union, resulting in 10 overflights during the summer and early fall of 1957. But when flights ceased in October, the thought of British participa tion became more attractive. By early 1958, Bissell was pressing the British to begin training pilots in the U-2 even though no final politi cal decision on their participation had been made. On 7 February 1958, Bis sell instructed the Chief of Station in Londonj~---~__J to ask Air Vice Marshal MacDonald if the RAF was prepared to '"" See, for ex:ample, the trip reports of the Ad Hoc Requirements Committee in the COMIREX records, IC Staff (TS Codeword). '"' Andrew J. Goodpaster, Memorandum of Conference with the President, 6 May 1957 (TS); idem, "Record of Action-Meeting of May 6, 1957," WHOSS, Alpha, DDEL (TS). Scere4i
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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.