Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 5
205
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overflights of Cuban territory. He argued that the loss of an aircraft on a mission that combined both types of flights would make it difficult for the United States to stand on its rights to fly over international waters. Bundy and Carter therefore agreed to split the proposed reconnaissance program into four missions: two overflights and two peripheral flights, all planned for maximum safety. The overflights were thus designed to be quick “in-and-out” operations across the narrow width of the island instead of flights along the entire length of Cuba, as had been the case previously. (As the map on page 202 illustrates, the 5 September mission was the last one to fly along the length of the island.) As an additional precaution, flightpaths would be laid out to avoid known SAM sites. Although these changes greatly reduced the danger to the U-2, they slowed the gathering of information on the Soviet buildup by reducing each mission’s coverage.⁹
To ensure that the photographs taken by these missions were of the highest quality, the CIA decided to conduct flights only when the weather along the flight routes was less than 25 percent overcast. Weather proved to be a major problem during the month of September. Unfavorable forecasts (along with a brief standdown of U-2 overflights after the loss of the Nationalist Chinese U-2) prevented the launching of any missions from 6 through 16 September. Moreover, when mission 3091 finally flew on 17 September, the favorable weather forecast proved inaccurate and heavy clouds prevented the mission from obtaining usable photography. Bad weather continued to rule out missions until 26 September, when mission 3093 covered eastern Cuba and found three additional SAM sites. Three days later mission 3095 flew over the Isle of Pines and Bay of Pigs area, finding one more SAM site and a coastal-defense cruise missile site.¹⁰
The cautious series of U-2 flights in September had turned up many more SAM sites but no concrete evidence of the presence of surface-to-surface missiles. Growing impatient with the restrictions
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⁹ Lehman Report, pp. 12-13 (TS Codeword).
¹⁰ DCI John A. McCone, Memorandum for the Record, “U-2 Overflights of Cuba, 29 August through 14 October 1962,” 27 February 1963, DCI records, job 80-B-1676R, box 17, folder 18 (S). Although this DCI memo states that “the delay in completing the photographic coverage was due solely to the unfavorable weather predicted during this period,” a more contemporary COMOR memo reported a standdown of U-2 overflights until 16 September as a result of the loss of mission No. GRC-127 over China on 8 September. Memorandum for DDCI Carter from James Q. Reber, Chairman, COMOR, “Historical Analysis of U-2 Overflights of Cuba,” 24 October 1962, IC Staff, COMIREX records, job 33-B-122A, box 1, “Cuba Requirements, 1961-63” (TS Codeword).
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25