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.
“Donald A. Johnson”17 pages
81 -&ec:t et rc:iOFORN and plan missions in view of priority and feasibility, to maintain the operation on a continuing basis, and to carry out the dissem ination of rhe resulting information in a manner consistent with its special security requirementsY When the U-2's deve lopment and testing approached comple tion, Land's recommendation was put into effect. Following a mt!et ing with Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald Quarles and Trevor Gardner (who had been promoted from his special assistant post co become Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Research and Development), Richard Bissell establ ished an Ad Hoc Requirements Committee (ARC) on I December 1955. He then named James Q. Reber to be Intelligence Requ irements Officer for the U-2 project and chairman of the ARC. Reber was already experienced in coordination with other intelligence agencies, for he had headed the Directorate of Intelligence DI Office of Intelligence Coordination for four years. The first full-scale ARC meeting took place on I February 1956 with representatives from the Army, Navy, and Air Force present. Attending for the CIA were representatives from the Office of Research and Reports (ORR) and the Office of Scienti fic Intell igence . (QS I). The CIA membership later expanded to include the Office of Current Intell igence (OCI) and a representative from the Directorate of Plans. In 1957 the National Security Agency (NSA) also began sending a representative. The State Department followed suit in 1960. although it had been receiving reports from the committee all along.'~ A RC's main task was to draw up lists of collection requirements. primarily for the U-2. but also for other means of collection. These lists prioritized targets accordi ng to their ability to meet the three ma jor national intelligence objectives concerning the Soviet Union in the mid- 1950s: long-range bombers, guided missiles, and nuclear energy. The committee issued its l ist of cargets for the use of the entire intelli gence community using all available means of collection, not j ust for the CIA with the U-2.63 " OSA History. chap. I. annex I (TS Codeword). ' ' Minu1es of lh. " t,,lemorandum for lhc Joint S1udy Group from James Q. Rc:bcr. "Handling of Requirements for 1he U-2:· 15 August 1960. IC Staff records. job 33-T-123A. box I 0. " CHALICE (Gen.:rall" (TS Cod.:worJ>. Chapter 2 James 0. Reber
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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.