Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
---
Secret NOFORN
Chapter 6
298
---
[figure]
---
A-12s at Area 51
Defense McNamara told DCI McCone that he doubted that the OXCART would ever be used and suggested that improvements in satellite reconnaissance would very likely eliminate the need for the expensive OXCART program. Strongly disagreeing, McCone told McNamara that he had every intention of using OXCART aircraft to fly over the Soviet Union.
McCone raised this issue with President Kennedy in April 1963, at a time when the nation’s photosatellites were experiencing a great number of failures and the intelligence community was clamoring for better photography to confirm or disprove allegations of the existence of an antiballistic missile system at Leningrad. Unconvinced by McCone’s arguments for OXCART overflights, President Kennedy expressed the hope that some means might be devised for improving satellite imagery instead.⁵⁰
---
⁵⁰ John A. McCone, Memorandum for the Record, “Summary of meeting with Secretary McNamara and Secretary Gilpatric, General Carter and Mr. McCone on 5 July 1962,” 6 July 1962, DCI records (S); McCone, Memorandum for the File, “Meeting with the President—5:30—15 Apr 1963 in Palm Beach, Florida,” DCI records (S).
---
Secret
---
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25