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

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Chapter 5
Vietnam in January 1973, US military flights in the area were forbid­
den. The Nixon administration, therefore, tasked the CIA with moni­
toring North Vietnam's compliance with the cease-fire accords.
The Agency dispatched several pilots to Taiwan under the cover
of Lockheed employees working on a government contract to check
weather conditions. Their highly sensitive missions had to remain at
least 15 nautical miles away from the North Vietnamese coast, and
they initially flew at low altitude in a deceptive direction in order to
avoid PRC radars. These constraints made the missions diffic­
ult because at low altitude the U-2 consumed more fuel and encoun­
tered more turbulence and the pilocs· pressure suits tended to
overheat.
The first mission on 30 March 1973 was only marginally suc­
cessful because of cloud cover and haze, which prevented it from
photographing most of its targets. A second mission on the following
day had somewhat better luck with the weather. but problems with the
film processing reduced the mission·s coverage. Afterward, the mon­
soon season prevented any further missions until 21 July 1973. This
·mission obtained usable photography of SAM sites and North
Vietnamese supply operations, although the resolution was not as
high as it should have been because the H camera lens had not been
properly focused. The last SCOPE SHIELD mission, on 6 January
1974. finally succeeded in obtaining high-quality photography. The
mission provided complete coverage of shipping in Haiphong Harbor.
SAM defenses, and North Vietnamese naval order of battle.M
IMPROVEMENTS IN U-2 TECHNOLOGY
Modification of U-2s for Aircraft Carrier Deployment
In mid-1963, the Office of Special Activities set in motion Project
WHALE TALE to examine the possibility of adapting the U-2 aircraft
for operations from an aircraft carrier. In the past, protest notes from
the Soviet Union to Turkey and Pakistan and from Communist China
to India had been responsible for interrupting overflight operations.
CIA planners believed that. if U-2s could be modified to operate from
aircraft carriers, the United States could avoid the political problems
~ Ibid .. pp. 48-51 (TS Codeword).