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

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33
Secret NOfiORN
Chapter 1
to do so because the Land committee was part of a panel commis­
sioned by President Eisenhower to examine the nation's intelligence
community and recommend changes. The committee thus had a direct
line to the White House through James Killian's contacts there:
Early in November 1954, Land and Killian met with President
Eisenhower to discuss high-altitude reconnaissance. Killian's mem­
oirs contain an account of this crucial meeting:
Land described the [CL-282] system using an unarmed plane and
recommended that its development be undertaken. After listening to
our proposal and asking many hard questions, Eisenhower ap­
proved the development of the system, but he stipulated that it
should be handled in an unconventional way so that it would not
become entangled in the bureaucracy of the Defense Department
or troubled by rivalries among the services. 58
The scientists from the advisory committees and the President
were thus in agreement that the new reconnaissance program should
be controlled by the CIA, not the military.
- ClA and Air Force Agreement on the CL-282
Meanwhile Edwin Land and his Project Three colleagues were work­
ing to convince Allen Dulles that the CIA should run the proposed
overflight program. On 5 November Land wrote to the DCI strongly
urging that the CIA undertake the CL-282 project:
Here is the brief report from our panel telling why we think
overflight is urgent and presently feasible. I [Land] am not sure
that we have made it clear that we feel there are many reasons
why this activity is appropriate for CIA, always with Air Force
assistance. We told you that this seems to us the kind of action
and technique that is right for the contemporary version of
CIA: a modem and scientific way for an Agency that is always
supposed to be looking, to do its looking. Quite strongly, we
feel that you must always assert your first right to pioneer in
scientific techniques for collecting intelligence-and choosing
such partners to assist you as may be needed. This present op­
portunity for aerial photography seems to us a fine place to
start. 59
" Killian, Sputnik, Scientists, and Eisenhower, p. 82. The exact date of the meeting cannot
be detennined, but it occurred during the first half of November 1954.
,. Letter, Project Three Panel to DCI Allen F. Dulles, 5 November 1954, in OSA History,
chap. I, annex I (TS Codeword).
Sec,et