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.
171 Sec, et NOPORICJ Chapter 4 strengthened when the Soviet Union did not protest the 9 April mis sion. As Presidential science adviser George Kistiakowsky later re marked about the lack of protest, ''This was virtually inviting us to repeat the sortie ... ~= Although President Eisenhower had authorized another over flight for April, he left the designation of its targets up to the experts at the C lA. Of the three missions that remained under consideration. one-Operation SUN SPOT-would overfly southern targets, Tyuratam and Vladimirovka, while the other two would cover rail road networks in the north-central portion of the Soviet Union. The intelligence community had been interested in this area ever since late 1959, when there were indications that the Soviets were building an SS-6 launch facility there. This was the first indication that :SS-6s might be located anywhere other than Tyuratam testing facility. where the missi les were launched from a general purpose launching pad. T he intelligence community was anxious to obtain photography of a " George B. Kistiakowsky. A Scientist lll rlie \¥/,ire House (CamhriJg.:: l·t.1rvarJ Univ.:rsity Press. 1976). p. 3::8. SA-2 surface-to-air missile SeG:ret
Not linked to a story yet.
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.