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

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Sec.et NOFORN
Chapter 5
222
landing at the Scranton-Wilkes-Bame Airport. the pilot reported the
incident to Headquarters. The Office of Security immediately con­
tacted the Pennsylvania State Police, who sealed off the wooded area.
Agency security officers soon arrived to search for the boxes. They
recovered all 43 containers; not one had broken.
32
Detachment G's only other activity during the summer of 196 l
was a solitary overflight of North Vietnam, known as Operation
EBONY. In preparation for this mission, a U-2 deployed to Cubi
Point on 13 August l96 l. Two days later it successfully conducted
the overflight and subsequently returned to the United States.JJ
New Detachment on Taiwan
Long before the Nationalist Chinese became involved in the U-2 pro­
gram, they were flying covert reconnaissance missions for the CIA. In
1952 the CIA began recruiting Nationalist Chinese crews to replace
US personnel from the proprietary ti.rm Civil Air Transport, who had
_been flying Agency aircraft to drop leaflets. agents, and supplies over
the Chinese mainland. This •project (BGMARQUE) aJso provided
photographic coverage of the rail li.ne from Shanghai to the border
with French Indochina. CIA-sponsored aerial reconnaissance over the
mainland increased substantially in 1955 with the establishment of
Project STPOLLY. which used Agency aircraft with Nationalist
Chinese crews to gather Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and conduct
psychological warfare against the Pe,ople's Republic of China. At first
the SIGlNT equipment was installed in World War II-vintage aircraft
such as PB-4Ys and B-17s, but in 1958 the project received a new
aircraft procured covertly by the Agency from Lockheed, the P2V7,
with an extremely sophisticated airborne SIGINT system. STPOLLY
added the more advanced Lockheed P3A in 1963. Between 1955 and
1967, when the CIA terminated the project, STPOLLY conducted 399
overflights of the People's Republic of China, losing a total of eight
aircraft and crews.
In addition to CIA-sponsored aerial reconnaissance projects, the
Nationalist Chinese Air Force had ii:s own reconnaissance capability
with US-supplied RB-57 aircraft. ln 1958 the US Air Force proposed
" Ibid.. chap. 7. p. 24 (TS Codeword).
·'·' Ibid.. chap. 16. p. 18 (TS Cod.:word).
Su,et