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
298 Sect et NOP'ORN Chapter 6 . •_,.,,,._~ ' :/=~...;-.. . ":-, -- A-12s at Area 51 Defense McNamara told DCI McCone that he doubted that the OXCART would ever be used and suggested that improvements in satellite reconnaissance would very likely el iminate the need for the expensive OXCART program . Strongly disagreeing, McCone told McNamara that he had every intention of using OXCART aircraft to fly over the Soviet Union. McCone raised this issue with President Kennedy in April 1963. at a time when the nation's photosatellites were experiencing a great number of failures and the intelligence community was clamoring for better photography to confirm or disprove allegations of the existence of an antiballistic missile system at Leningrad. Unconvinced by McCone·s arguments for OXCART overflights. President Kennedy expressed the hope that some mean:, might be devised for improving satellite imagery instead. 50 '" John A. McCone. i\,kmorandum fur the Rccord. " Summary of meeting wi1h Secre1ary McNamara and Secretary Gilpa1ric. Gencr.11 Career and Mr. McCone on 5 July 1962.'' 6 July 1962. DCI records (S): McCone. Memorandum for the File. "Meeting wi1h 1he President-5:30-1 5 Apr 1963 in Palm Beach. Florida:· DCI records (SJ.
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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.