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.
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247 Chapter 5 Vietnam in January 1973, US mi litary flights in the area were forbid den. The Nixon administration, therefore, tasked the CIA with moni toring North Vietnam's compliance with the cease-fire accords. The Agency dispatched several pilots to Taiwan under the cover of Lockheed employees working on a government contract to check weather conditions. Their high ly sensitive missions had to remain at least 15 nautical miles away from the North Vietnamese coast, and they initially flew at low altitude in a deceptive direction in order to avoid PRC radars. These constraints made the missions diffic ult because at low altitude the U-2 consumed more fuel and encoun tered more turbulence and the pilocs· pressure suits tended to overheat. The first mission on 30 March 1973 was only marginally suc cessful because of cloud cover and haze, which prevented it from photographing most of its targets. A second mission on the following day had somewhat better luck with the weather. but problems with the film processing reduced the mission ·s coverage. Afterward, the mon soon season prevented any further missions until 21 July 1973. This ·mission obtained usable photography of SAM sites and North Vietnamese supply operations, although the resolution was not as high as it should have been because the H camera lens had not been properly focused. The last SCOPE SHIELD mission, on 6 January 1974. finally succeeded in obtaining high-quality photography. The mission provided complete coverage of shipping in Haiphong Harbor. SAM defenses, and North Vietnamese naval order of battle.M IMPROVEMENTS IN U-2 TECHNOLOGY Modification of U-2s for Aircraft Carrier Deployment In mid-1963 , the Office of Special Activities set in motion Project WHALE TALE to examine the possibi lity of adapting the U-2 aircraft for operations from an aircraft carrier. In the past, protest notes from the Soviet Union to Turkey and Pakistan and from Communist China to India had been responsible for interrupting overflight operations. CIA planners believed that. if U-2s could be modified to operate from aircraft carriers, the United States could avoid the political problems ~ Ibid .. pp. 48-51 (TS Codeword).
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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.