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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256 • • • Secret NOFOAN Chapter 5 U-2 ir;t- tlil!ht to its destination. The C-I41 carried support equipment to theL ] In October I [ es__· t_ ◊o__ _a_l_k_ ce _,_ 11 a __ f_d i_ io n__fe en lo _tc·a___t___r__ . _________, No overseas deployment exercise was necessary in 1970, for ele ments of Detachment G actually deployed overseas to provide photog raphy of the Middle East. At the time. President Nixon's National Security Adviser. Henry A. Kissinger, was mediating between the Arabs and lsraelis in order to obtain a cease-fire along the Suez Canal. where a virtual undeclared war was taking place . Once agreement was reached in August, Kissinger promised both sides that the United States would monitor the agreed upon 32-mile pullback from the wa terway. Originally, Kissinger intended for photosatellites to do the monitoring. One satellite was tasked to photograph the Suez Canal area on 10 August, but the qual ity of its imagery lacked the detail needed to discover such small targets as gun emplacements and jeeps. In early A ugust , Kissinger asked the Air Force to provide U-2s to overtly the Canal, but the A ir Force demurred, saying it would take several weeks to move a U-2 detachment from Del Rio, Texas. to the Middle East. At this point. DCI Helms told an NSC meeting that the Agency's Detachment G at Edwards Air Force Base could deploy air- craft to~-------------' and begin ti I ming the Suez area with in the week. and it did. In fact. the first U-2 arrived in r---Jonly 71 hours after receiv ing notification to deploy. Between ~st and 10 November 1970. Agency U-2s flew 29 missions over the cease-fire zone as part of Project EVEN ST EVEN . Most flights used the B camera. but 12 were equipped with the new, high-resolu tion H camera. The EVEN STEVEN U-2s also employed a dozen electron ic-intelligence-collection packages. from System-X to System-XXIV. After 10 November 1970. Air Force SR-7 1s took over the task of photographing the cease-fire zone.76 The M iddle East was again the cause of a Detachment G deploy ment in October I 97~ wbea aoorbec Acab-l scaeli war bcol,e anr Two U-2s d,eployed to the~----------------'~ n 7 and 8 October 1973. to be ready for possi ble coverage of the confl ict. Detach rnent G received no such tasking. however. and the last of the aircraft returned to California on 13 November. The 1973 war did " Ibid.. pp. 5-6. 10- 11 tTS Co<.l.:word). ,. Ibid.. pp. 15-20 (TS Cod.:worJL -Sec, cl--
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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.