Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 3
146
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*Equipment from a WS-461L balloon on display in Moscow, 11 October 1958*
![Image: Black-and-white photograph showing equipment from a WS-461L balloon on display in Moscow, 11 October 1958. The image depicts several individuals gathered around equipment, with one person appearing to be operating or examining a device. The setting appears to be indoors, possibly in a museum or exhibition space.]
Goodpaster on 29 July 1958 to tell the Air Force that “the project is to be discontinued at once and every cent that has been made available as part of any project involving crossing the Iron Curtain is to be impounded and no further expenditures are to be made.”⁹⁸
Two days later Eisenhower followed up this order with a formal memorandum to Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy telling him that “there is disturbing evidence of a deterioration in the processes of discipline and responsibility within the armed forces.” He cited, in particular, “unauthorized decisions which have apparently resulted in certain balloons falling within the territory of the Communist Bloc” and overflights over routes “that contravened my standing orders.”⁹⁹
On 2 September 1958, there was another violation of Soviet airspace when an unarmed Air Force EC-130 on an electronic intelligence collection mission crossed from Turkey into Soviet Armenia and was shot down by Soviet fighter aircraft. Six of the men on board were killed and the remaining 11 were never heard from again, despite State Department attempts to get the Soviet Union to reveal their fate.¹⁰⁰
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⁹⁸ Andrew J. Goodpaster, Memorandum for the Record, 29 July 1958, WHOSS, Alpha, DDEL (S); Goodpaster interview (S).
⁹⁹ Quoted in Ambrose, *Eisenhower: The President*, pp. 475-476.
¹⁰⁰ “US Representations to the Soviet Government on C-130 Transport Shot Down by Soviet Fighter Aircraft,” *US Department of State Bulletin*, 23 February 1959, pp. 262-271; Beschloss, *Mayday*, p. 159.
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Secret
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Approved for Release: 2013/06/25