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
44 Sasret NOFORN Chapter 2 use. Public Law 110, approved by the 81st Congress on 20 June 1949, designates the Director of Central Intelligence as the only government employee who can obligate Federal money without the use of vouch ers. By using unvouchered funds, it is possible to eliminate competi tive bidding and thereby limit the number of parties who know about a given project. The use of unvouchered funds also speeds up the Federal procurement cycle. A general contractor such as Lockheed can purchase much, if not all, of the supplies needed for a project without resorting at each step to the mandated procurement proce dures involving public, competitive bidding. Covert contracting also permits the use of second and third parties, many of them dummy corporations or unwitting suppliers, thus hiding the intended destina tion or use of the various purchases. In mid-December 1954, President Eisenhower authorized DCI Dulles to use $35 million from the Agency's Contingency Reserve Fund to finance the U-2 project. Then on 22 December 1954, the Agency signed a letter contract with Lockheed, using the codename Project OARFISH. The Agency had proposed to give Lockheed "performance specifications., rather than the standard Air Force "technical specifica tions," which were more rigid and demanding, and Kelly Johnson agreed that such a move would save a lot of money. Lockheed's original pro posal to the Air Force in May l 954 had been $28 million for 20 U-2s equipped with GE 173 engines. During negotiations with CIA General Counsel Lawrence R. Houston, Lockheed changed its proposal to $26 million for 20 airframes plus a two-seat trainer model and spares; the Air Force was to furnish the engines. Houston insisted that the Agency could only budget $22.5 million for the airframes because it needed the balance of the available $35 million for cameras and life-support gear. The two sides finally agreed on a fixed-price contract with a provision for a re view three-fourths of the way through to determine if the costs were going to exceed the $22.5 million figure. The formal contract, No. SP-1913, was signed on 2 March 1955 and called for the delivery of the first U-2 in July 1955 and the last in November 1956. Meanwhile, to keep work moving at Lockheed, Richard Bissell wrote a check for $1,256,000 I ~nd mailed it to Kelly Johnson's home on 21 February 1955.9 • John S. Warner. Oftice of the General Counsel, interview by Donald E. Welzenbach, Washington, DC, tape recording, 5 Aug 1983 (S): OSA History, chap. 5, pp. 1-2 and annex 42 (TS Codeword): Johnson, "Log for Project X," 21 February 1955 . .Searet
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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.