The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974

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Sec, et NOFOAN
Chapter 5
Nothing came of the proposal to resume overflights in the fall of
1961, as both the USIB and the Special Group came out against it,
but, as long as U-2 photography remained clearly superior to satellite
photography, the thought of obtaining U-2 coverage of the Soviet
Union remained tempting. In February 1962, the USIB seriously con­
sidered a COMOR proposal to send a U-2 over Kamchatka to photo­
graph Soviet antiballistic-missile facilities but finally decided to wait
for the results of an Air Force peripheral mission. The board later ac­
cepted DCI McCone's recommendation to seek satellite rather than
U-2 coverage of the area.4
With both the CIA and the State Department strongly opposed to
sending the highly vulnerable U-2 over the Soviet Union, prospects
for resuming flights remained slight unless the international situation
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worsened to such a degree that overflights would be worth the risks
involved. Since this never happened, Francis Gary Powers' flight on l
May 1960 proved to be the last CIA overflight of the Soviet Bloc.
Yet, the U-2 remained useful, for it could operate successfully in
other areas with less developed radar and air defense systems. After
May 1960, the main focus of U-2 activity shifted to two new areas:
Latin America, where U-2s would play an extremely important role
during the early 1960s, and the Far East, where CIA U-2s were active
from 1958 until 1974, when the Agency's involvement in manned re­
connaissance finally ended.
U-2 OPERATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA
U-2 Support to the Bay of Pigs Invasion
During late summer 1960, the Directorate of Plans was planning a
counterrevolutionary invasion of Cuba for the following year. To sup­
port this effort, the Agency asked the National Security Council's
' Memorandum for the Special Group from COMOR, "Illustrations of Policy Restraints
on the Collection of Information through Overflight of Denied Areas during 1962," 14
December 1962, IC Staff, COMIREX records, job 33-8-1 I 9A, box 1 (TS Codeword);
James S. Lay, "The United States Intelligence Board, 1958- I 965," (draft) CIA History
Staff MS-2, 1974, p. 385 (TS Codeword). One year later Saryshagan was the topic of US
Intelligence Board deliberations. In October 1963 the board asked COMOR to prepare
recommendations on the need for an electronic intelligence-gathering mission against the
Soviet ABM installations at Saryshagan. The proposed mission would not, however, vio­
late Soviet airspace; instead, the U-2 would fly over the portion of the People's Republic
of China closest to Saryshagan. Lay, "USIB History," pp. 393-94 (TS Codeword).
SHret
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