Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 3
97
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Even though President Eisenhower had approved every stage of the U-2’s development, knowing full well that the aircraft was being built to fly over the Soviet Union, the actual decision to authorize such flights was very difficult for him. He remained concerned that overflights could poison relations with the Soviet Union and might even lead to hostilities. One argument that helped overcome the President’s reluctance was the CIA’s longstanding contention that U-2 flights might actually go undetected because Soviet radars would not be able to track aircraft at such high altitudes. This belief was based on a 1952 study of Soviet World War II–vintage radars and on 1955 tests using US radars, which—unknown to US officials—were not as effective as Soviet radars against high-altitude targets. Shortly before U-2 operations began, however, the CIA’s Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) conducted a vulnerability study of the U-2 that was published on 28 May 1956. The study’s conclusion was that “Maximum Soviet radar detection ranges against the Project aircraft at elevation in excess of 55,000 feet would vary from 20 to 150 miles. . . . In our opinion, detection can therefore be assumed.” The OSI study added, however, “It is doubtful that the Soviets can achieve consistent tracking of the Project vehicle.”⁹ Completed just three weeks before the initiation of overflights, this study seems to have had little impact on the thinking of the top project officials. They continued to believe that the Soviets would not be able to track the U-2 and might even fail to detect it, except for possible vague indications.¹⁰
Soviet radars were not President Eisenhower’s only concern. Also fearing that a malfunction might cause a U-2 to crash inside the Soviet Union, he asked Allen Dulles what the consequences would be. The President’s staff secretary, Col. Andrew J. Goodpaster, who was present at virtually all White House meetings on the U-2 project and served as the President’s intermediary to the CIA on this issue, later recalled:
> Allen’s approach was that we were unlikely to lose one. If we did lose one, the pilot would not survive. . . . We were told—and it was part of our understanding of the situation—that it was almost certain that the plane would disintegrate and that we could
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⁹ *OSA History*, chap. 11, p. 31 (TS Codeword). For the belief that the U-2 might go undetected see the Leghorn interview and Dwight D. Eisenhower, *Waging Peace, 1956-1961* (New York, 1965), p. 41.
¹⁰ Richard M. Bissell, Jr., interview by Gregory W. Pedlow, tape recording, Farmington, Connecticut, 28 October 1988 (S).
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25