Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 3
128
remaining opposed to flights over most of the Soviet Union, Eisenhower finally agreed to permit some flights over peripheral areas such as Kamchatka Peninsula and Lake Baikal, as well as the Soviet Union’s atomic testing area at Semipalatinsk. Such overflights could be staged from Pakistan if the Pakistani Government consented. The President rejected the Air Force’s request to take over the U-2 program, stating that he preferred to have the aircraft manned by civilians “during operations of this kind.”⁷¹
The President had once again agreed to allow overflights of the Soviet Union, although only over certain areas, because the need to learn more about the capabilities and intentions of the Soviet Union was too compelling. In particular, the President and top administration officials wanted to gather more data on the Soviet Union’s missile program, a subject for which considerable Soviet boasting—but no hard data—was available.
Even after he had authorized the resumption of overflights, President Eisenhower maintained tight control over the program. He personally authorized each overflight, which meant that Richard Bissell would bring maps to the White House with the proposed routes marked on them for the President to examine. More than once, according to Bissell, Eisenhower spread the map out on his Oval Office desk for detailed study, usually with his son John (an Army officer serving as a White House aide) and Colonel Goodpaster looking over his shoulder. On occasion, the President would pick up a pencil and eliminate a flight leg or make some other correction to the flight plan.⁷²
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RADAR-DECEPTIVE “DIRTY BIRDS”
One additional reason why President Eisenhower had again authorized overflights of the Soviet Union was renewed CIA promises that Soviet detection or tracking of the U-2 was unlikely. At the 6 May 1957 meeting with the President, Richard Bissell reported on the progress that had been made in developing radar camouflage and
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⁷¹ Andrew J. Goodpaster, Memorandum of Conference with the President, 6 May 1957 (TS); “Record of Action—Meeting of May 6, 1957.” WHOSS, Alpha, DDEL (TS).
⁷² Bissell interview by Welzenbach (S); Beschloss, *Mayday*, p. 140.
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25