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.
“Hill”15 pages
, Sec. et NOFORN Chapter 5 222 landing at the Scranton-Wilkes-Bame Airport. the pilot reported the incident to Headquarters. The Office of Security immediately con tacted the Pennsylvania State Police , who sealed off the wooded area. Agency security officers soon arrived to search for the boxes. They recovered all 43 containers; not one had broken.32 Detachment G's only other activity during the summer of 196 l was a solitary overflight of North Vietnam, known as Operation EBONY. In preparation for this mission, a U-2 deployed to Cubi Point on 13 August l96 l. Two days later it successfully conducted the overflight and subsequently returned to the United States.JJ New Detachment on Taiwan Long before the Nationalist Chinese became involved in the U-2 pro gram, they were flying covert reconnaissance missions for the CIA . In 1952 the CIA began recruiting Nationalist Chinese crews to replace US personnel from the proprietary ti.rm Civil Air Transport, who had _ been flying Agency aircraft to drop leaflets. agents, and supplies over the Chinese mainland. This •project (BGMARQUE) aJso provided photographic coverage of the rail li.ne from Shanghai to the border with French Indochina. CIA-sponsored aerial reconnaissance over the mainland increased substantially in 1955 with the establishment of Project STPOLLY. which used Agency aircraft with Nationalist Chinese crews to gather Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and conduct psychological warfare against the Pe,ople's Republic of China. At first the SIGlNT equipment was installed in World War II-vintage aircraft such as PB-4Ys and B-17s, but in 1958 the project received a new aircraft procured covertly by the Agency from Lockheed, the P2V7, with an extremely sophisticated airborne SIGINT system. STPOLLY added the more advanced Lockheed P3A in 1963. Between 1955 and 1967, when the CIA terminated the project, STPOLLY conducted 399 overflights of the People's Republic of China, losing a total of eight aircraft and crews. In addition to CIA-sponsored aerial reconnaissance projects, the Nationalist Chinese Air Force had ii:s own reconnaissance capability with US-supplied RB-57 aircraft. ln 1958 the US Air Force proposed " Ibid.. chap. 7. p. 24 (TS Codeword). ·'·' Ibid.. chap. 16. p. 18 (TS Cod.:word). Su,et
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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.