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 Pentagon”12 pages
210 Sec. et NOFORN Chapter 5 Soviet MRBM site in Cuba, 1 October 1962 thousands of feet of film returned by Air Force and Navy reconnais sance aircraft. President Kennedy used NPIC photographs to i llustrate his address to the nation on 22 October I 962. when he revealed lhe Soviet missile buildup in Cuba and declared his " naval quarantine" to prevent the shipment of offensive weapons to Cuba. On 27 October, at the height of the crisis, one of the U-2Cs knt by the Agency to the Air Force was shot down over Cuba. killing rthe pilot, Maj. Rudolph Anderson. T his loss again illustrated the U-2's vulnerability to the SA-2 missi le. Nevertheless, SAC U-2 overflights continued, both during and after the crisis. Responsibility for photo graphic coverage of Cuba remained with the Air Force; Agency pil,ots never flew another mission over the island. Although SAC carried out most of the U-2 activity during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Agency 's U-2 missions had made vital con tributions during the i nitial stages of the crisi s. In all. Proj,ect IDEALIST pi lots had spent 459 hours overflying Cuba during 1916 1 and 1962. They had provided concrete evidence of the Soviet buildlup on the island, evidence that was simply not available through any Seeret
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.