Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 5
223
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[figure]
[figure]
Lockheed P-2V7 and P3A reconnaissance aircraft
supplying the Nationalist Chinese Government with the most advanced reconnaissance aircraft available, the U-2. The CIA opposed a Nationalist Chinese U-2 program because such flights would destroy the existing unclassified cover for the U-2. In discussions with the Air Force, DDCI Cabell only consented to having Nationalist pilots trained to fly U-2s so that they would be ready in case they were needed in the future; he opposed any Nationalist overflights. The training of the Nationalist Chinese pilots began in March 1959. By the end of the year, there was a group of trained pilots ready for operations, and DCI Dulles met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss the program’s future. Dulles reaffirmed the Agency’s opposition to Nationalist Chinese U-2 missions, and the Air Force, which had
Secret
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Approved for Release: 2013/06/25