This volume presents to scholars and the public the CIA's newly declassified internal history of the U-2 program. The original study, written by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach for the CIA History Staff in the 1980s, was published in 1992 under the title The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954- 1974. Sections of that study on the U-2 program have been included here to mark the occasion of the September 1998 conference "The U-2: A Revolution in Intelligence." The entire study is being reviewed under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.
The product of a remarkable collaboration between the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States Air Force, Lockheed Corporation, and other suppliers, the U-2 collected intelligence that revolutionized American intelligence analysis of the Soviet threat. Although the U-2 has been one of America's best known intelligence achievements, significant aspects of the U-2's story have remained unknown outside the US Government. This volume tells much of that story in a clear and engaging manner, providing a fuller context for understanding some of the most dangerous moments of the Cold War. The U-2 stands as a monument to the many ways in which intelligence has upheld the security of the United States and furthered the possibilities for peace around the world.
Gregory W. Pedlow
Donald E. Welzenbach
History Staff
Center for the Study
of Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency
1998