The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs,…
CIA-UAP-003 · Release 03 (6/12)
Agency
CIA
Document type
PDF
Incident date
1954-1974
Release
Release 03 (6/12)
Evidence tier
Tier 2 · Documented report
What the document says
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.
Auto-extracted from the original PDF · may contain extraction artifacts. The source document above is authoritative.
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INTELLIGENCE
AGENCY AND
-:.,:-. OVERHEAD (7 ;
R ECONNAISSANCE
The U-2 and OXC.\RT
Programs, 1954 - 1974
Gregory 'vV. Pedlow and
Donald E. vVelzenbach
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Secret l<JOFOFU'il
The Central Intelligence Agency
and Overhead Reconnaissance:
The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-197 4
Secret
~ec, et MOFORf~
The Central Intelligence Agency
and Overhead Reconnaissance:
The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974
Gregory W . Pedlow
and
Donald E. Welzenbach
History Staff
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C.
1992
Sec,et
♦ Chapter 1
Searching for a System
The Need for High-Altitude Reconnaissance............................................ 1
Early Postwar Aerial Reconnaissance ................................................... 2
New Approaches to Photoreconnaissance........................................... 4
The Air Force Search for a New Reconnaissance Aircraft............... 8
Lockheed CL-282 Supporters and the CIA. ........................................ 13
Scientists and Overhead Reconnaissance ............................................... 17
The BEACON HILL Report .................................................................... 17
Concern About the Danger of a Soviet Surprise Attack ................ 19
The Air Force Intelligence Systems Panel......................................... 21
British Overflight of Kapustin Yar ....................................................... 23
The Intelligence Systems Pane! and the CL-282 .............................. 24
The Technological Capabilities Panel ................................................. 26
Project Three Support for the Lockheed CL-282 .............................. 27
A Meeting With the President ............................................................. 32
CIA and Air Force Agreement on the CL-282 .................................. 33
♦ Chapter 2
Developing the U-2
The Establishment of the U-2 Project..................................................... 39
Funding Arrangements for Project AQUATONE .................................... 43
Major Design Features of the U-2........................................................... 45
The Development of the Camera System .............................................. 48
Preparations for Testing the U-2 ............................................................. 56
Security for the U-2 Project...................................................................... 59
The CIA - Air Force Partnership.............................................................. 60
Technical Challenges to High-Altitude Flight ......................................... 61
Delivery of the First U-2 ........................................................................... 66
Initial Testing of the U-2 ........................................................................... 68
U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK................................................ 72
Sec, el NOFORN
Hiring U-2 Pilots ........ _ ................................................................................. 73
Pilot Training ............................................................................................... 75
Final Tests of the U-2................................................................................ 76
Three Fatal Crashes in 1956 ..................................................................... 79
Coordination of Collection Requirements ............................................... 80
Preparations To Handle the Product of U-2 Missions ......................... 82
The Impact of the Air Force Project GENETRIX Balloons................... 84
AQUATONE Briefings for Selected Members of Congress ................. 88
The U-2 Cover Story .................................................................................. 89
♦ Chapter 3
U-2 Operations in the Soviet Bloc and Middle East, 1956-1958
The Deployment of Detachment A to Lakenheath ............................... 94
The Move to Wiesbaden ........................................................................... 95
President Eisenhower's Attitude Toward Overflights............................ 96
First Overflights of Eastern Europe ....................................................... 100
First U-2 Flights Over the Soviet Union............................................... 104
Soviet Protest Note .................................................................................. 109
The End of the Bomber Gap................................. : ................................ 111
Tactical Intelligence From U-2s During the Suez Crisis .................... 112
Renewed Overflights of the Soviet Union ........................................... 122
Radar-Deceptive "Dirty Birds" ................................................................ 128
The New Detachment C .......................................................................... 133
Detachment B Flights From Pakistan .................................................... 135
The Decline of Detachment A ................................................................ 139
Cooperation With Norway ....................................................................... 142
Declining Overflight Activity.................................................................... 143
Concerns About Soviet Countermeasures Against the U-2 .............. 147
More Powerful Engines for the U-2 ...................................................... 149
Intervention in Lebanon, 1958 ................................................................ 152
British Participation in the U-2 Project ................................................. 153
The U-2 Project at the Beginning of 1959........................................... 157
♦ Chapter 4
The Final Overflights of the Soviet Union, 1959-1960
The U-2 and the "Missile-Gap" Debate................................................ 159
The Last Overflight: Operation GRAND SLAM .................................... 170
The Aftermath of the U-2 Downing ...................................................... 177
The Withdrawal of the Overseas Detachments ................................... 181
The Fate of Francis Gary Powers .......................................................... 183
Changes in Overflight Procedures After May 1960 ............................ 187
Geeret PJOFORN
..'t', Chapter 5
U-2 Operations After May 1960
U-2 Operations in Latin America ........................................................... 197
U-2 Support to the Bay of Pigs Invasion........................................ 197
Aerial Refueling Capability for the U-2 ............................................ 198
U-2 Coverage During the Cuban Missile Crisis .............................. 199
U-2s Over South America .................................................................. 211
U-2 Operations in Asia ............................................................................ 211
Detachment C and the Indonesian Revolt of 1958 ........................ 211
China Offshore Islands Dispute of 1958 .......................................... 215
U-2 Support for DDP Operations in Tibet....................................... 216
U-2Cs for Detachment C..................................................................... 217
U-2 Crash in Thailand ......................................................................... 219
End of Detachment C Operations ..................................................... 219
Detachment G Missions Over Laos and North Vietnam .............. 221
New Detachment on Taiwan ............................................................. 222
Use of Detachment H Aircraft by US Pilots ................................... 230
U-2s in India ......................................................................................... 231
Increasing Responsibilities. Inadequate Resources in Asia ........... 233
Advanced ECM Equipment for Detachment H................................ 237
Infrared Scanner Over PRC Nuclear Plants ....................... 238
....................................... 240
~~::-::;--::,-;-~~:F:::.:-:=--::-r-;~
=-=-=~
The End of U-2 Overflights o
ain an
China ............................. 242
Peripheral Missions by Detachment H............................................. 244
Operation SCOPE SHIELD Over North Vietnam ............................. 246
Improvements in U-2 Technology .........................................................247
Modification of U-2s for Aircraft Carrier Deployment ................... 247
Use of Carrier-Based U-2 To Film a French Nuclear Test Site... 249
A New Version of the U-2...................................................... ........... 251
Replacement of the Original U-2s With U-2Rs............................... 253
The Final Years of the U-2 ..................................................................... 253
Support to Other Agencies ................................................................ 254
Overseas Deployment Exercises and Missions ............................... 255
The Phaseout of the Office of Special Activities ........................... 257
0 ) Chapter 6
The U-2·s Intended Successor: Project OXCART, 1956-1968
The Evaluation of Designs for a Successor to the U-2 .................... 260
Competition Between Lockheed and Convair ...................................... 267
The Selection of the Lockheed Design ................................................. 270
Efforts To Reduce the A·12's Radar Cross Section............................ 274
The OXCART Contract ............................................................................. 277
See, et NOFOAN
New Technologies Necessitated By OXCART's High Speed............. 279
Designing the OXCART's Cameras ........................................................ 281
Choosing Pilots for OXCART .................................................................. 283
Selection of a Testing Site for t he OXCART....................................... 283
Delivery of the First OXCART ................................................................ 286
Changes in the Project Management .................................................... 286
OXCART' s First Flights............................................................................. 288
Speed-Related Problems ...... .................................................................... 290
New Versions of the OXCART ............................................................... 291
The Question of Surfacing a Version of the OXCART ...................... 292
Additional Problems During Final Testing ............................................ 295
Discussions on the OXCART's Future Employment ........................... 297
First A-12 Deployment: Operation BLACK SHIELD ............................. 304
The End of the OXCART Program ........................................................ 307
Possible Successors to the OXCART..................................................... 312
Summary of the OXCART Program ...................................................... 313
♦ Chapter 7
Conclusion
U-2 Overflights of the Soviet Union ..................................................... 315
Participation of Allies in the U-2 Program........................................... 319
U-2s as Collectors of Tactical Intelligence ........................................... 319
Advances in Technology.......................................................................... 320
Cooperation With the Air Force ............................................................. 321
Impact of the Overhead Reconnaissance Program on the CIA. ....... 321
♦ Appendix A: Acronyms ............................................................................. 325
♦ Appendix B: Key Personnel ..................................................................... 327
♦
Appendix C: Electronic Devices Carried by the U-2 ........................... 335
♦ Appendix D: U-2 Overflights of the Soviet Union, ............................. 337
4 July 1954-1 May 1960
♦ Appendix E: Unmanned Reconnaissance Projects .............................. 339
♦ Bibliography ................................................................................................ 347
♦ Index ............................................................................................................ 355
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ieeret NOFGftN
FOREWORD
This History Staff Monograph offers a comprehensive and authorita
tive history of the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program.
which from 1954 to 1974 developed and operated two extraordinary
aircraft, the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. It describes not only the
program's technological and bureaucratic aspects, but also its politi
cal and international context. The manned reconnaissance program,
along with other overhead systems that emerged from it, changed the
CIA's work and structure i.n ways that were both revolutionary and
permanent. The formation of the Directorate of Science and
Technology in the I 960s, principally to develop and direct reconnais
sance programs, is the most obvious legacy of the events recounted in
this study.
The authors tell an enigrossing story. The struggle between the
CIA and the US Air Force to control the U-2 and A-12 OXCART
projects reveals how the manned reconnaissance program confronted
problems that still beset successor programs today. The U-2 was an
enormous technological suc:cess: its first flight over the USSR in July
1956 made it immediately the most important source of intelligence
on the Soviet Union. Using it against the Soviet target it was designed
for nevertheless produced a persistent tension between its program·
managers and the President. The program managers, eager for cover
age, repeatedly urged the President to authorize frequent missions
over the Soviet Union. President Eisenhower, from the outset doubt
ful of the prudence and prt0priety of invading Soviet airspace, only
reluctantly allowed any overflights at all. After the Soviets shot down
Francis Gary Powers' U-2 on I May 1960, President Eisenhower
forbade any further U-2 flights over the USSR. Since the Agency
must always assess a covert operation's potential payoff against the
diplomatic or military cost if it fails, this account of the U-2's em
ployment over the Soviet Union offers insights that go beyond
overhead reconnaissance programs.
Indeed, this study should be useful for a variety of purposes. It is
the only history of this program based upon both full access to CIA
records and extensive classified interviews of its participants. The
authors have found records that were nearly irretrievably lost and
have interviewed participants whose personal recollections gave in
formation available nowhere else. Although the story of the manned
-Sac,et
See1et N0F0RN
reconnaissance program offers no tidy model for imitation, it does
reveal how resourceful managers coped with unprecedented techno
logical challenges and their implications for intelligence and national
policy. For this reason, the program's history provides profitable
reading for intelligence professionals and policymakers today.
Many people made import.1nt contributions to the production of
this volume. ln the History Staff's preparation of the manuscript,
Gerald Haines did the final revision, Diane Marvin again demon
strated her high talent as a copy editor, and[
[ provided
staunch secretarial support throughout. As usual, we are indebted to
more members than we can name from the Publications, Design. and
Cartography Centers in the Office of Current Production and Analytic
Support, whose lively interest in the publication went far beyond the
call of duty. Their exceptional professional skill and the masterly
work of the Printing and Photography Group combined to create this
handsome volume.
Donald E. Welzenbach, who began this study, and Gregory W.
Pedlow, w_llo completed it, brought complementary strengths to _this
work. A ~eteran of C[A service since 1960, Mr. Welzenbach began
research on this study in 1983, when he joined the DCI History Staff
on a rotational assignment from the Directorate of Science and
Technology. After tireless documentary research and extensive inter
viewing. he finished a draft manuscript of the history before returning
to his directorate. In early 1986, Gregory W. Pedlow, a new member
of the DC( History Staff, was assigned to complete the study. A Johns
Hopkins University Ph.D. who has served as an Army intelligence
officer and University of Nebraska professor of history, Dr. Pedlow
undertook important research in several new areas, and reorganized.
edited, and revised the entire manuscript before leaving CIA to be
come NATO Historian in late 1989. The final work, which has greatly
benefited from both authors' contributions, is the CIA's own history
of the world's first great overhead reconnaissance program. ♦
J. Kenneth McDonald
Chief, CIA History Staff
April 1992
Secret l\10FeAN
PREFACE
When the Central Intelligence Agency came into existence in 1947,
no one foresaw that, in less than a decade, it would undertake a
major program of overhead reconnaissance, whose principal purpose
would be to fly over the Soviet Union. Traditionally, the military
services had been responsible for overhead reconnaissance, and
flights deep into unfriendly territory only took place during wartime.
By the early I 950s, howev,er, the United States had an urgent and
growing need for strategic :intelligence on the Soviet Union and its
satellite states. At great risk, US Air Force and Navy aircraft had
been conducting peripheral reconnaissance and shallow-penetration
overflights, but these missions were paying a high price in lives lost
and increased international tension. Furthermore. many important
areas of the Soviet Union lay beyond the range of existing reconnais
sance aircraft. The Air Force had therefore begun to develop a
high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft that would be able to conduct
deep-penetration reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his civilian scientific advisers
feared that the loss of such an aircraft deep in Soviet territory could
lead to war and therefore authorized the development of new non
military aircraft, first the U-2 and later the A-12 OXCART, to be
manned by civilians and operated only under cover and in the
greatest secrecy. Primary responsibility for this new reconnaissance
program was assigned to the Central Intelligence Agency, but the Air
Force provided vital support.
The Agency's manned overhead reconnaissance program lasted
20 years. It began with President Eisenhower's authorization of the
U-2 project in late 1954 and ended with the transfer of the remaining
Agency U-2s to the Air Force in 1974. During this period the CIA
developed a successor to the U-2, the A- 12 OXCART, but this ad
vanced aircraft saw little operational use and the program was
canceled in 1968 after the Air Force deployed a fleet of similar air
craft, a military variant of the A-12 called the SR-71.
Neither of these aircraft remai ns secret today. A great deal of in
formation about the U-2 and its overflight program became known to
the public after I May 1960, when the Soviet Union shot down a CIA
U-2 and publicly tried its pilot. Francis Gary Powers. Four years
See,et
later, at press conferences in February and July 1. 964, President
Lyndon B. Johnson revealed the existence of the OXCART-type of
aircraft, although only in its military YF- l 2A (interceptor) and SR-7 l
(strategic reconnaissance) versions.
The two CIA reconnaissance aircraft have also been the subject
of a number of books, beginning with David Wise's and Thomas B.
Ross's The U-2 Affair in 1962 and then Francis Gary Powers'
memoirs, Operation Overflight, in 1970. Two recent books give many
more details about the U-2 and OXCART air,craft: Michael
Beschloss's Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev and the U-2 Affair
(l986) and William Burrows's Deep Black: Space Espionage and
National Security ( 1987). Although well written and generally ac
curate, these books suffer from their authors' lack of access to
classified official documentation. By drawing upon the considerable
amount of fonnerly classified data on the U-2 now available to the
public, Beschloss has provided an accurate and insightful depiction of
the U-2 program in the context of the Eisenhower 21dministration 's
overall foreign policy, but his book does contain errors and omissions
on some aspects of the U-2 program. Burrows's broader work suffers
more from the lack of classified documentation. particularly in the
OXCART/SR-71 section, which concentrates on the Air Force air
craft because little information about the Agency's aircraft has been
officially declassified and released.
After the present study of the Agency's overhead reconnaissance
projects was completed, a new book on the U-2 was p+ublished in the
United Kingdom. Chris Pocock's Dragon Lady: The History of the
U-2 Spyplane is by far the most accurate unclassified account of the
U-2 program. Pocock has been able to compensate for his lack of ac
cess to classified documents by interviewing many former
participants in the program, especially former pilots. Pocock is also
quite familiar with aircraft itself, for he had worked with Jay Miller
on the latter's excellent technical study of the U-2: Lockheed U-2
(l983).
There has also been a classified official study of the U-2 and
OXCART programs. In 1969 the Directorate of Science and
Technology published a History of the Office of Speci,al Activities by
SeeFet
Helen Hill Kleyla and Robert D. O'Hern. This 16-volume Top Secret
Codeword study of the Agency's reconnaissance aircraft provides a
wealth of technical and operational information on the two projects
but does not attempt to place them in their historical context. Without
examining the international situation and bureaucratic pressures af
fecting the president and other key policymakers, however, it is
impossible to understand the decisions that began, carried out, and
ended the CIA's reconnaissance aircraft projects.
In preparing this study of CIA's overhead reconnaissance pro
gram, the authors drew on published sources, classified government
documents, and interviews with key participants from the CIA, Air
Force,
contractors,
scientific advisory committees,
and
the
Eisenhower administration. The interviews were particularly impor
tant for piecing together the story of how the CIA became involved in
overhead reconnaissance in the first place because Agency documen
tation on the prehistory of the U-2 project is very sketchy and there
are no accurate published accounts. Research on the period of actual
reconnaissance operations included the records of the Director of
Central Intelligence, the Office of Special Activities in the
Directorate of Science and Technology, and the Intelligence
Community Staff, along with documents from the Eisenhower
Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas, and additional interviews.
Both authors are grateful for the assistance they have received
from many individuals who played important roles in the events they
recount. Without their help a good deal of this story could never have
become known. The assistance of Agency records management
officers in the search for documents on the overhead reconnaissance
program is also greatly appreciated.
To ensure that this study of the Agency's involvement in over
head reconnaissance reaches the widest possible audience, the authors
have kept it at the Secret classification level. As a result, some
aspects of the overhead reconnaissance program, particularly those
involving satellites and related interagency agreements, have had to
be described in very general terms. The omission of such information
is not significant for this book, which focuses on the Agency's recon
naissance aircraft. ♦
1
Seeret NOFORN
Chapter 1
Searching for a System
THE NEED FOR HIGH-ALTITUDE RECONNAISSANCE
For centuries, soldiers in wartime have sought the highest ground or
structure in order to get a better view of the enemy. At first it was tall
trees, then church steeples and bell towers. By the time oif the
American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, ob
se_ryers were using hot-air balloons to get up in the sky for a better
view of the "other side of the hill." With the advent of dry film, it
became possible to carry cameras into the sky to record the disposi
tion of enemy troops and emplacements. Indeed, photoreconnaissance
proved so valuable during World War I that in 1938 Gen. Werner von
Fritsch, Commander in Chief of the German. Army, predicted: '·'The
nation with the best aerial reconnaissance facilities will win the next
war."
1
By World War II, lenses, films, and cameras had undergone many
improvements, as had the airplane, which could fly higher and faster
than the primitive craft of World War I. Now it was possible to use
photoreconnaissance to obtain information about potential targets be
fore a bombing raid and to assess the effectiveness of the bombing
afteiwarcl
Peacetime applications of high-altitude photography at first in
cluded only photornapping and surveying for transcontinental high
ways and mineral and oil exploration. There was little thought given to
using photography for peacetime espionage until after World War II,
when the Iron Curtain rang down and cut off most fonns of communi
cation between the Soviet Bloc of nations and the rest of the world.
' Roy M. Stanley II, World War I/ Photo Intelligence (New York: Scribners. 1981), p. 16.
2
6cc. ct P.OFORN
Chapter 1
By I 949 the Soviet Union and the states of Eastern Europe had
been effectively curtained off from 1the outside world, and the Soviet
military carried out its planning. production. and deployment activi
ties with the utmost secrecy. All Soviet strategic capabilities
bomber forces, ballistic missiles. submarine forces, and nuclear weap
ons plants-were concealed from outside observation. The Soviet air
defense system, a prime consideration in determining US retaliatory
policies, was also largely an unknown factor.
Tight security along the Soviet Bloc borders severely curtailed
the movement of human intelligence sources. In addition. the Soviet
Union made its conventional means of communication-telephone,
telegraph, and radio-telephone-more secure, thereby greatly reduc
ing the intelligence available from tlhese sources. The stringent secu
rity measures imposed by the Communist Bloc nations effectively
blunted traditional methods for gathering intelligence: secret agents
using covert means to communicate intelligence, travelers to and
from target areas who could be asked to keep their eyes open and re
port their observations later, wiretaps and other eavesdropping meth
ods. and postal intercepts. Indeed, the entire panoply of intelligence
tradecraft seemed ineffective against the Soviet Bloc, and no other
methods were available.
Early Postwar Aerial Reconnaissance
Although at the end of World War II the United States had captured
large quantities of German photos and documents on the Soviet
Union, this material was rapidly becoming outdated. The main source
of current intelligence on the Soviet Union's military installations was
interrogation of prisoners of war returning from Soviet captivity. To
obtain information about Soviet sci,entitic progress, the intelligence
community established several programs to debrief German scientists
who had been taken to the Soviet Vinion after the end of the war but
were now being allowed to leave.~
: At the end of World War II. th<! British had e:stablished Project DRAGON to g:iin infor.
mation from German scientists who had work,:d on the Peenernunde rocket project. and
the term DRAGON later was used to refer to individuals possessing scientific or technical
information. In 1948 the US Air Force set up Project WRINGER in Germany to gather
intt:lligence on the Soviet Union from defecto1rs and refugees: th is project was later ab
sorbed into the combined armed forces/CIA Detector Reception Center (DRC). which b<!
gan operations in February 1951. In October 1951. a separate organization 10 exploit
individuals with scientific or technical backgrou1nds. especially German scientists who had
worked inside the Soviet Union. c:ime into existence. This organiz:ition was known :is the
Returnee Exploitation Group (REG) and was located in Fra~kfurt By 1958 the flow of
s,.i,-orisrs ~as so small that the REG merged wi·th the DRC.[
)
he Defecwr Receprio11 Center Germany. 1951 w /967. Clandestine Service
Historical Series CSHP-41 (CIA: History Staff .. 1972). pp. 5-6. 29-30 (S).
I
3
Interrogation of returning Germans offered only fragmentary in
formation, and this source could not be expected to last much longer.
As a result, in the late 1940s, the US Air Force and Navy began trying
to obtain aerial photography of the Soviet Union. The main Air Force
effort involved Boeing RB-47 aircraft (the reconnaissance version of
the B-47 jet-propelled medium bomber) equipped with cameras and
electronic "ferret" equipment that enabled aircrews to detect tracking
by Soviet radars. At that time the Soviet Union had not yet com
pletely ringed its borders with radars, and much of the interior also
lacked radar coverage. Thus, when the RB-47s found a gap in the
air-warning network, they would dart inland to take photographs of
any accessible targets. These ·'penetration photography" flights
(called SENSINT-sensitive intelligence-missions) occurred along
the northern and Pacific coasts of Russia. One RB-47 aircraft even
managed to fly 450 miles inland and photograph the city of Igarka in
Siberia. Such intrusions brought protests from Moscow but no Soviet
military response. 3
In 1950 there was a major change in Soviet policy. Air defense
units became very aggressive in defending their airspace, attacking all
aircraft that came near the borders of the Soviet Union. On 8 April
1950, Soviet fighters shot down a US Navy Privateer patrol aircraft
over the Baltic Sea. Following the outbreak of the Korean war in June
1950, the Soviet Union extended its "severe air defense policy'' to
the Far East. In the autumn of 1951, Soviet aircraft downed a twin-en
gine US Navy Neptune bomber near Vladivostok. An RB-29 lost in
the Sea of Japan on 13 June 1952 was probably also a victim of
Soviet fighters. The United States was not the only country affected
by the new aggressive Soviet air defense policy; Britain and Turkey
also reported attacks on their planes. 4
' A. L. George. Case Studies of Actual and Alleged Overflights. 1930-1953, Rand Study
RM-1349 (Santa Monica: Rand. 1955) (S). Arthur S. Lundahl and Dino Brugioni, inter
view by Donald E. Welzenbach. tape recording. Washington. DC. 14 December 1983 (TS
Codeword). Recordings, transcript5, and notes for the interviews conducted for this study
are on file at the DCI History Staff.
' Jeffrey Richelson states on page 121 of American Espionage and the Soviet Target (New
York: Morrow, 1987) that "the first recorded attack by Soviet air defense forces, in this
case fighters. occurred on October 22. 1949." In this incident, however, Soviet fighters did
not attempt to hit the US aircrati; they merely fired warning shots. The real change in
Soviet policy did not occur until the April 1950 downing of the US Navy Privateer.
George, Case Studies, pp. 1-2. 6, 9-16 (S).
Sec, et NOF=ORI\J
Chapter 1
-Seere:t
Sec, et NOFORN
Chapter 1
4
The Soviet Union's air defense policy became even more aggres
sive in August I 952, when its reconnaissance aircraft began violating
Japanese airspace over Hokkaido, the northernmost Japanese home
island. Two months later, on 7 October 1952, Soviet fighter aircraft
stalked and shot down a US RB-29 flying over Hokkaido. Aerial re
connaissance of the Soviet Union and surrounding areas had become
a very dangerous business.
Despite the growing risks associated with aerial reconnaissance
of the Soviet Bloc, senior US officials strongly believed that such
missions were necessary. The lack of information about the Soviet
Union, coupled with the perception that it was an aggressive nation
determined to expand its borders-a perception that had been greatly
strengthened by the Soviet-backed North Korean invasion of South
Korea in June 1950--increased US determination to obtain informa
tion about Soviet intentions and capabilities and thus reduce the dan
ger of being surprised by a Soviet attack.
New Approaches to Photoreconnaissance
While existing Navy and Air Force aircraft were flying their risky re
connaissance missions over the Soviet Union, the United States began
planning for a more systematic and less dangerous approach using
new technology. One of the leading advocates of the need for new,
high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was Richard S. Leghorn, a
Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate and employee of
Eastman Kodak who had commanded the Army Air Forces' 67th
Reconnaissance Group in Europe during World War IL After the war
he returned to Kodak but maintained his interest in photoreconnais
sance. Leghorn strongly believed in the need for what he called
pre-D-day reconnaissance, that is, reconnaissance of a potential
enemy before the outbreak of actual hostilities, in contrast to combat
reconnaissance in wartime. In papers presented in 1946 and 1948,
Leghorn argued that the United States needed to develop such a capa
bility, which would require high-altitude aircraft and high-resolution
cameras. The outbreak of the Korean war gave Leghorn an opportu
nity to put his ideas into effect. Recalled to active duty by the Air
Force, Lieutenant Colonel Leghorn became the head of the
Reconnaissance Systems Branch of the Wright Air Development
Command at Dayton, Ohio, in April 1951.5
' Richard S. Leghorn, interview by Donald E. Welzenbach. tape recording, Washington,
DC. 19 August 1985 (S).
SeoFat
5
In Leghorn's view, altitude was the key to success for overhead
reconnaissance. Since the best Soviet interceptor at that time, the
MIG-17. had to struggle to reach 45,000 feet,6 Leghorn reasoned that
an aircraft that could exceed 60,000 feet would be safe from Soviet
fighters. Recognizing that the fastest way to produce a high-altitude
reconnaissance aircraft was to modify an existing aircraft, he began
looking for the highest flying aircraft available in the Free World.
This search soon led him to a British twin-engine medium bomber
the Canberra-built by the English Electric Company. The Canberra
had made its first flight in May I949. Its speed of 469 knots (870 ki
lometers per hour) and its service ceiling of 48,000 feet made the
Canberra a natural choice for high-altitude reconnaissance work. The
Royal Air Force quickly developed a reconnaissance version of the
Canberra, the PR3 (the PR stood for photoreconnaissance). which be
gan flying in March 1950. 7
At Leghorn's insistence,
the
Wright
Air Development
Command invited English Electric representatives to Dayton in the
summer of 1951 to help find ways to make the Canberra fly even
higher. By this time the Air Force had already adopted the bomber
version of the Canberra, which the Glenn L. Marrin Aircraft
Company was to produce under license as the B-57 medium bomb
er. Leghorn and his English Electric colleagues designed a new
Canberra configuration with very long high-lift wings, new
Rolls-Royce Avon-109 engines, a solitary pilot, and an airframe that
was stressed to less than the standard military specifications.
Leghorn calculated that a Canberra so equipped might reach 63,000
feet early in a long mission and as high as 67,000 feet as the declin
ing fuel supply lightened the aircraft. He believed that such a modi
fied Canberra could penetrate the Soviet Union and China for a
radius of 800 miles from bases around their periphery and photo
graph up to 85 percent of the intelligence targets in those countries.
Leghorn persuaded his superiors to submit his suggestion to the
Pentagon for funding. He had not, however, cleared his idea with the
Air Research and Development Command, whose reconnaissance
• 13.716 meters. To avoid giving a false impression of e:imemely precise measurement.s.
original English measuring system figures in round numbers have not been converted to
the metric system. To convert feet to meters. multiply by 0.3048. To convert airspeeds in
knots (nautical miles per hour) to kilometers per hour. multiply by 1.85.
' Dick van der Aart, Aerial Espionage. Secret Intelligence Flights by Easr and West
(Shrewsbury. England: Airlife Publishing, 1985). p. I 8.
~,etNOFOAN
Chapter 1
Richard S. Leghorn
6
Secret i'JOF'OfUd
Chapter 1
division in Baltimore, headed by Lt. Col. Joseph J. Pellegrini. had to
approve all new reconnaissance aircraft designs. Pellegrini·s unit
reviewed Leghorn's design and ordered extensive modifications.
According to Leghorn, Pellegrini was not interested in a special-pur
pose aircraft that was only suitable for covert peacetime reconnais
sance missions, for he believed that all Air Force reconnaissance
aircraft should be capable of operating under wartime conditions.
Pellegrini therefore insisted that Leghorn ·s design meet the specifica
tions for combat aircraft, which required heavily stressed airframes,
armor plate. and other apparatus that made an aircraft too heavy to
reach the higher altitudes necessary for safe overflights of the Soviet
Bloc. The final result of Leghorn's concept after its alteration by
Pellegrini ·s staff was the RB-57D in I 955, whose maximum altitude
RAF Canberra Mark-PR3
Seeret
7
was only 64,000 feet. Meanwhile Leghorn, frustrated by the rejection
of his original concept, had transferred to the Pentagon in early 1952
to work for Col. Bernard A. Schriever, Assistant for Development
Planning to the Air Force's Deputy Chief of Staff for Development.~
In his new position Leghorn became responsible for planning the
Air Force's reconnaissance needs for the next decade. He worked
closely with Charles F. (Bud) Wienberg-a colleague who had fol
lowed him from Wright Field-and Eugene P. Kiefer, a Notre
Dame-educated aeronautical engineer who had designed reconnais
sance aircraft at the Wright Air Development Center during World
War IL All three of these reconnaissance experts believed that the Air
Force should emphasize high-altitude photoreconnaissance.
Underlying their advocacy of high-altitude photoreconnaissance
was the belief that Soviet radars would not be able to track aircraft
flying above 65,000 feet. This assumption was based on the fact that
the Soviet Union used American-built radar sets that had been sup
plied under Lend-Lease during World War II. Although the SCR-584
(Signal Corps Radio) target-tracking radar could track targets up to
90,000 feet. its high power consumption burned out a key component
quickly, so this radar was normally not turned on until an early warn
ing radar had detected a target. The SCR-270 early warning radar
could be left on for much longer periods and had a greater horizontal
range (approximately 120 miles) but was limited by the curvature of
the earth to a maximum altitude of 40,000 feet. As a result, Leghorn,
Kiefer, and Wienberg believed that an aircraft that could ascend to
65,000 feet before entering an area being swept by the early warning
radar would go undetected, because the target-tracking radars would
not be activated. 9
The problem with this assumption was that the Soviet Union, un
like Britain and the United States, had continued to improve radar
technology after the end of World War II. Even after evidence of im
proved Soviet radar capabilities became available, however, many ad
vocates of high-altitude overflight continued to believe that aircraft
flying above 65,000 feet were safe from detection by Soviet radars.
' Leghorn interview (S).
' Ivan A. Getting, interview by Donald E. Welzenbach, Los Angeles, 28 August 1988 (U).
Sec,et NOFORN
Chapter 1
SeeFet
iHret NOFORN
Chapter 1
8
The Air Force Search for
Reconnaissance Aircraft
a Ni:tw
With interest in high-altitude reconnaissance growing, several Air
Force agencies began to develop ain aircraft to conduct such mis
sions. In September 1952, the Air Research and Development
Command gave the Martin Aircraft Company a contract to examine
the high-altitude potential of the B-57 by modifying a single aircraft
to give it long, high-lift wings and tlhe American version of the new
Rolls-Royce Avon-109 engine. These were the modifications that
Richard Leghorn had suggested during the previous year."'
At about the same time, another Air Force office, the Wright Air
Development Command (WADC) in Dayton, Ohio, was also examin
ing ways to achieve sustained flight at high altitudes. Working with
two German aeronautical experts--Woldemar Voigt and Richard
Vogt-who had come to the United States after World War II, Air
Force Maj. John Seaberg advocated the development of a new aircraft
that would combine the high-altitude perfonnance of the latest turbo
jet engines with high-efficiency wings in order to reach ultrahigh alti
tudes. Seaberg, an aeronautical engineer for the Chance Vought
Corporation until his recall to active duty during the Korean war, was
serving as assistant chief of the New Developments Office of
WADC's Bombardment Branch.
By March 1953, Seaberg had expanded his ideas for a high-alti
tude aircraft into a complete request for proposal for "an aircraft
weapon system having an operational radius of 1.500 nm [nautical
miles) and capable of conducting pre- and post-strike reconnaissance
missions during daylight, good visibility conditions." The require
ment stated that such an aircraft must have an optimum subsonic
cruise speed at altitudes of 70,000 feet or higher over the target.
carry a payload of 100 to 700 pounds of reconnaissance equipment.
and have a crew of one.
11
The Wright Air Development Command decided not to seek pro
posals from major airframe manufacturers on the grounds that a
smaller company would give the new proj ect a higher priority and
'" Philip G. Strong. Chic:f. Operations Staff. OSI. Memorandum for the Record. '"Recon
naissance Capabilities." 21 August I 953. OSI records (S).
" Jay Miller. uKkheed U-2. Aerograph 3 (Aus:tin. Texas: Acrofax. 1983). p. 10.
Seeret
•
9
produce a bener aircraft more quickly. In July 1953, the Bell Aircraft
Corporation of Buffalo, New York, and the Fairchild Engine and
Airplane Corporation of Hagerstown, Maryland, received study con
tracts to develop an entirely new high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
In addition, the Glenn L. Martin Company of Baltimore was asked to
examine the possibility of improving the already exceptional high-al
titude performance of the 8-57 Canberra. By January 1954 all three
firms had submitted their proposals. Fairchild's entry was a singl.e-en
gine plane known as M-195, which had a maximum altitude potc!ntial
of 67,200 feet; Bell's was a twin-engine craft called the Modd 67
(later the X- 16), which had a maximum altitude of 69,500 feet; and
Martin's design was a big-wing version of the 8-57 called the Model
294, which was to cruise at 64,000 feet. In March 1954, Seaberg and
other engineers at Wright Field, having evaluated the three contend
ing designs, recommended the adoption of both the Martin and Bell
proposals. They considered Martin's version of the B-57 an interim
project that could be completed and deployed rapidly while the more
advanced concept from Bell was still being developed.
11
Air Force headquarters soon approved Martin's proposal to mod
•ify" the B-57 and was very much interested in the Bell design. But
word of the competition for a new reconnaissance airplane had
reached another aircraft manufacturer, the Lockheed Aircraft
Corporation, which submitted an unsolicited design.
Lockheed had first become aware of the reconnaissance aircraft
competition in the fall of 1953. John H. (Jack) Carter, who, had
recently retired from the Air Force to become the assistant director
of Lockheed's Advanced Development Program, was in the Pentagon
on business and dropped in to see Eugene P. Kiefer, an old friend
and colleague from the Air Force's Office of Development Planning
(more commonly known as AFDAP from its Air Force office
symbol). Kiefer told Carter about the competition for a high-flying
aircraft and expressed the opinion that the Air Force was going about
the search in the wrong way by requiring the new aircraft to be suit
able for both strategic and tactical reconnaissance.
Immediately after returning to California, Carter proposed to
Lockheed Vice President L. Eugene Root (previously the top civilian
official in the Air Force's Office of Development Planning) that
'' The request for proposal. known as ··Design Study Requirements. ldentiticatic1n No.
53WC-J6j07:· has been reprinted in Miller, Lockheed U·Z, pp. 10- 11.
Chapter 1
10
Secret ld0F8RN
Chapter 1
Lockheed also submit a design. Carter noted that the proposed aircraft
Designs for the Air Force
would have co reach altitudes of between 65. 000 and 70,000 feet and
competition for a high-altitude
reconnaissance aircraft
correctly forecast, "If extreme altitude performance can be realiz:ed in
a practical aircraft at speeds in the vicinity of Mach 0.8. it should be
capable of avoiding virtually all Russian defenses until about 1960."
Carter added, ··To achieve these characteristics in an aircraft which
will have a reasonably useful operational life during the period before
1960 will. of course, require very strenuous efforts and extraordinary
procedures, as well as nonstandard design philosophy." Some of the
"nonstandard" design cnaracteristics suggested by Carter were the
elimination of landing gear, the disregard of military specifications.
and the use of very low load factors. Carter's memorandum closed
with a warning that time was of the essence: " In order that this spe
cial aircraft can have a reasonably long and useful life, it is obvious
that its development must be greatly accelerated beyond that consid
ered normal. ..
1
•
1
Lockheed's senior officials approved Carter's proposal, and
early in 1954 the corporation's best aircraft designer-Clarence L.
(Kelly) Johnson-began working on the project, then known as the
CL-282 but later to become famous under its Air Force designa1tor
the U-2. Already one of the world's leading aeronautical engirneers,
Kelly Johnson had many successful military and civilian designs to
his credit. including the P-38, P-80, F-I04. and Constellmtion.
Johnson quickly came up with a radical design based upon the
fuselage of the F-I04 jet fighter but incorporating a high-aspect--ratio
sailplane wing. To save weight and thereby increase the aircraft"s al
titude. Johnson decided to stress the airframe to only 2.5 units of
" Milkr. U1''kheed U-2. p. 12.
-See,oc
11
/
Chapter 1
gravity (g's) instead of the military specification strengLh of 5.33 g's.
For the power plant he selected the General Electric 173/GE-3 nonaf
terburning turbojet engine with 9,300 pounds of thrust (this was the
same engine he had chosen for the F- 104, which had been the basis
for the U-2 design).
1
" Many of the CL-282's design features were
adapted from gliders. Thus, the wings and tail were detacihable.
Instead of a conventional landing gear, Johnson proposed using two
skis and a reinforced belly rib for landing- a common saillplane
technique-and a jettisonable wheeled dolly for takeoff. Other tea
tures included an unpressurized cockpit and a 15-cubic-foot prnyload
area that could accommodate 600 pounds of sensors. The CL--282's
maximum altitude would be just over 70,000 feet with a 2, 000-mile
range. Essentially, Kelly Johnson had designed a jet-propelled
gl"d
I er. .~•
Early in March 1954, Kelly Johnson submitted the CL-282 de
sign to Brig. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever's Office of Development
Planning. Eugene Kiefer and Bud Wienberg studied the design and
recommended it to General Schriever. who then asked Lockheed to
Kelly Johnson
. sµbmit a specific proposal. In early April, Kelly Johnson _presented a
full description of the CL-282 and a proposal for the construction and
maintenance of 30 aircraft to a group of senior Pentagon officials that
included Schriever·s superior. Lt. Gen. Donald L. Putt, Deputy Chief
of Staff for Development, and Trevor N. Gardner, Special Assistant
for Research and Development to the Secretary of the Air Force.
Afterward Kelly Johnson noted that the civilian officials were very
much interested in his design but the generals were not.
16
The CL-282 design was also presented to the commander of the
Strategic Air Command (SAC), Gen. Curtis E. LeMay. in early April
by Eugene Kiefer. Bud Wienberg, and Burton Klein from the Office of
" Lockheed Corporation. ··strategic Reconnaissance and Intelligence ... Development
Planning Note #I. 30 November 1953 (U).
" Miller. locklctted U-2. p. 12. For more: J.:tails on Kdly Johnson's original pr,:,posal.
see '"Profile of CL-282 High Altitude Aircraft prepared by Lockheed Aircrati
Corporation. 5 March 1954'" in Helen H. Kkyla and Robert D. o ·Hem. Hiswrv of the
Office of Special Activities. DS&T. Directorate of Science an<l Technology Hi~:torical
Series OSA-1. 16 vols. (CIA: DS&T. 1969). chap. I. annex 2 (TS Codeword). Th,: 16
volumes of this history contain 20 chaptr:rs . .:ach paginated separately. Future rd,:rcm;,;;s
will be shorten,:d to OSA Hiswry. follow<:!d by the rekvant chapter and pag<:! numbers.
•· Kelly Johnson Papers. ··Log for Project x:· April 1954. Lo.:khec:d Corporation.
Advanced Devdopmcnt Projec:ts Divi~ion. Burbank. California.
Sec,et
.
12
Sec,et NOFORN
Chapter 1
The Lockheed CL-282
Development Planning. According to Wienberg, General LeMay
stood up halfway through the briefing, took his cigar out of his mouth,
and told the briefers that, if he wan1ted high-altitude photographs, he
would put cameras in his B-36 bombers and added that he was not
interested in a plane that had no whe:els or guns. The general then left
the room, remarking that the whole business was a waste of his time."
Meanwhile, the CL-282 design proceeded through the Air Force
development channels and reached Major Seaberg at the Wright Air
Development Command in mid-May. Seaberg and his colleagues care
fully evaluated the Lockheed submission and finally rejected it in early
June. One of their main reasons for doing so was Kelly Johnson's
choice of the unproven General Electric J73 engine. The engineers at
Wright Field considered the Pratt aind Whitney J57 to be the most
powerful engine available, and the de:signs from Fairchild, Martin, and
Bell all incorporated this engine. The: absence of conventional landing
gear was also a perceived shortcoming of the Lockheed design."
Another factor in the rejection of Kelly Johnson's submission
was the Air Force preference for multiengine aircraft. Air Force re
connaissance experts had gained their practical experience during
" C. F. Wienb<!rg. telephone conversation with Donald E. Welzenbach. 23 July 1988 (U).
" Miller. Lockheed U-2. p. 12.
See1et
13
Sect et NOFORN
Chapter 1
World War II in multiengine bombers. In addition, aerial photography
experts in the late 1940s and early 1950s emphasized focal length as
the primary factor in reconnaissance photography and, therefore, pre
ferred large aircraft capable of accommodating long focal-length
cameras. This preference reached an extreme in the early 1950s with
the development of the cumbersome 240-inch Boston camera, a de
vice so large that the YC-97 Boeing Stratocruiser that carried it had to
be partially disassembled before the camera could be installed.
Finally, there was the feeling shared by many Air Force officers that
two engines are always better than one because, if one fails, there is a
spare to get the aircraft back to base. In reality, however, aviation re
cords show that single-engine aircraft have always been more reliable
than multiengine planes. Furthermore, a high-altitude reconnaissance
aircraft deep in enemy territory would have little chance of returning
if one of the engines failed, forcing the aircraft to descend. 19
On 7 June 1954, Kelly Johnson received a letter from the Air
Force rejecting the CL-282 proposal because it had only one engine
and was too unusual and because the Air Force was already commit
ted to the modification of the Martin B-57.w By this time, the Air
Force had also selected the Bell X-16; the formal contract calling for
28 aircraft was signed in September. Despite the Air Force's selection
of the X-16, Lockheed continued to work on the CL-282 and began
seeking new sources of support for the aircraft.
Lockheed CL-282 Supporters and the CIA
Although the Air Force's uniformed hierarchy had decided in favor of
the Bell and Martin aircraft, some high-level civilian officials contin
ued to favor the Lockheed design. The most prominent proponent of
the Lockheed proposal was Trevor Gardner, Special Assistant for
Research and Development to Air Force Secretary Harold E. Talbott.
Gardner had many contacts in west coast aeronautical circles because
before coming
to
Washington
he
had headed the
Hycon
Manufacturing Company, which made aerial cameras in Pasadena,
California. He had been present at Kelly Johnson's presentation on
the CL-282 at the Pentagon in early April 1954 and believed that this
'" Allen F. Donovan, interview by Donald E. Welzenbach, Corona del Mar, California,
20 May 1985 (S).
'" Johnson, "Log for Project X," 7 June 1954.
iaaret
14
Sec, et NOFOAN
Chapter 1
Trevor Gardner
design showed the most promise for reconnaissance of the Soviet
Union. This belief was shared by Gardner's special assistant,
Frederick Ayer, Jr., and Garrison Norton. an adviser to Secretary
Talbott.~'
According to Norton, Gardner tried to interest SAC commander
LeMay in the Lockheed aircraft because Gardner envisioned it pri
marily as a collector of strategic. rather than tactical. intelligence. But
General LeMay had already showni that he was not interested in an
unarmed aircraft. Gardner, Ayer, and Norton then decided to seek CIA
support for the high-flying aircraft. At that rime the Agency·s official
involvement in overhead reconnaissance was limited to advising the
Air Force on the problems of launiching large camera-carrying bal
loons for reconnaissance flights· over hostile territory (for the details
of this program. see chapter 2). The Chief of the Operations Staff in
the Office of Scientific Intelligence, Philip G. Strong. however.
served on several Air Force advisory boards and kept himself well in
formed on developments in reconnaissance aircraft.!!
Gardner, Norton, and Ayer met with Strong in the Pentagon on
12 May 1954, six clays before the Wright Air Development Command
began to evaluate the Lockheed proposal. Gardner described Kelly
Johnson's proposal and showed the drawings to Strong. After this
meeting. Strong summarized his impressions of the Air Force·s search
for a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft:
Proposals for special reconnaissance aircraft have been re
ceived in the Air Staff from Lockheed. Fairchild. and Bell . ...
The Lockheed proposal is considered to be the best. It has been
given the type designation of CL-282 and in many respects is a
jet-powered glider based essentially on the Lockheed Day
Fighter XF-104. It is primarily subsonic but can attain transonic
speeds over the target with a consequent loss of range. With an
altitude of 73,000 feet over the target it has a combat radius of
1,400 nautical miles . ... The CL-282 can be manufactured
" Garrison Norton. interview by Donald E. Wt!lzcnbach. tape recording. Wa.shington. DC.
23 May 1983 (S): Michael R. Beschloss. Mayd"y: Eisenhower. Kltrmhchev and the U-2
Affuir (New York: Harper & Row. 1986). p. 79.
" Strong was a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve and often used that tille even though
he was not on active duty. He later ad,·anced to• the rank or brigadier general in the reserve.
For S1rong·.~ contacts with senior Air Force officials concerning 1he CL-282. see the
Norton interview (S).
6ee,ot
Set1 el NOP'OAN
Chapter 1
15
mainly with XF-104 jigs and designs . ... The prototype of this
plane can be produced within a year from the date oforder: Five
planes could be delivered for operations within two years..
The Bell proposal is a more conventional aircrai having nor
mal landing gear. As a result, its maximum altiwde over .rarget
is 69,500 feet and the speed and range are not as good as the
Lockheed CL-282. :;
Gardner's enthusiasm for the CL-282 had given Strong the false
impression that most Air Force officials supported the Lockhee:d de
sign. (n reality, the Air Force's uniformed hierarchy was in the pro
cess of choosing the modified version of the Martin B-57 and the new
Bell X-16 to meet future reconnaissance needs.
During their meeting with Strong, Trevor Gardner, Fredlerick
Ayer, and Garrison Norton explained that they favored the CL-282
because it gave promise of flying higher than the other designs and
because at maximum altitude its smaller radar cross section might
make it invisible to existing Soviet radars. The three officials :asked
S.trong if the CIA would be interested in such an aircraft. Strong
promised to talk to the Director of Central Intelligence's newly hired
Special Assistant for Planning and Coordination. Richard M. Bissell.
Jr., about possible Agency interest in the CL-282.:"'
Philip Strong
Richard Bissell had already had an active and varied career be
fore he joi ned the CIA. A graduate of Groton and Yale, Bissell stud
ied at the London School of Economics for a year and then
completed a doctorate at Yale in 1939. He taught economics, first at
Yale and then from 1942 at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), where he became a full professor in 1948. During
World War II. Bissell had managed American shipping as executive
officer of the Combined Shipping Adjustment Board. After the war,
he served as deputy director of the Marshall Plan from 1948 until the
end of 1951, when he became a staff member of the Ford
Foundation. His first association with the Agency came in late 1953,
when he undertook a contract study of possible responses the United
'·' Philip G. Strong. Memorandum for the Record . ..Special Aircraft for Penetr:nion Photo
Reconnaissance," 12 May 1954. OSI records (now in OSWR). job 80R-0l424. box I (Sl.
'' Karl H. Weber. The Office of Scientific /r11elligence. /949-68. Directorate of Science
and Technology Historical Series OSI-I (CIA: DS&T. I 971). vol. I. tab A. pp. 16- 17 (TS
Codeword).
Gee,et
16
Chapter 1
Richard M. Bissell, Jr.
States might use against the Soviet Bloc in the event of another up
rising such as the East Berlin riots of June 1953. Bissell quickly
concluded that there was not much hope for clandestine operations
against Bloc nations. As he remark,ed later: "I know I emerge
Context
This is one of 21 CIA records in the declassified archive. It was published in Release 03 (6/12).
Evidence tiers describe the type of record (sensor capture vs. written report vs.
administrative file) · not a claim about its conclusions. UFO Papers reports only what the documents state.