Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 3
96
Nathan Twining prepared a paper for the President outlining “AQUATONE Operational Plans.” In the meantime, President Eisenhower had entered Walter Reed Hospital for tests for an abdominal ailment that turned out to be ileitis, requiring an operation. During his recovery from surgery, Eisenhower would make his final decision on the overflight program.⁷
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PRESIDENT EISENHOWER’S ATTITUDE TOWARD OVERFLIGHTS
The President had mixed feelings about overflights of the Soviet Union. Aware that they could provide extremely valuable intelligence about Soviet capabilities, he, nevertheless, remained deeply concerned that such flights brought with them the risk of starting a war. From the very beginning of the U-2 program, President Eisenhower had worked to minimize the possibility that overflights could lead to hostilities. He had always insisted that overflights by military aircraft were too provocative, and in 1954 he had therefore supported the Land committee’s proposal for an unarmed civilian aircraft instead of the military reconnaissance planes favored by the Air Force. For the same reason, Eisenhower had resisted attempts by the Air Force to take the U-2 program away from the CIA in 1955.
In fact, the President’s desire to avoid secret reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union, with all their risks, led him to make his famous “Open Skies” proposal in the summer of 1955, when the U-2 was still under development but making good progress. At the Geneva summit conference on 21 July 1955, President Eisenhower offered to provide airfields and other facilities in the United States for the Soviet Union to conduct aerial photography of all US military installations if the Soviet Union would provide the United States with similar facilities in Russia. Not surprisingly, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev almost immediately rejected Eisenhower’s offer. Although the President had hoped that the Soviet Union would accept his proposal, he was prepared for rejection. While Open Skies was still being considered, Eisenhower had stated, “I’ll give it one shot. Then if they don’t accept it, we’ll fly the U-2.”⁸
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⁷ Ibid., pp. 23-25 and annex 73, “AQUATONE Operational Plans,” 31 May 1956 (TS Codeword).
⁸ Quoted in Beschloss, *Mayday*, p. 105.
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25