Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA and Cold War Aerial Espionage [Hardcover]

Dino A. Brugioni (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2010

Dino A. Brugioni, author of the best-selling account of the Cuban Missile crisis, Eyeball to Eyeball, draws on his long CIA career as one of the world's premier experts on aerial reconnaissance to provide the inside story of President Dwight D. Eisenhower s efforts to use spy planes and satellites to gather intelligence. He reveals Eisenhower to be a hands-on president who, contrary to popular belief, took an active role in assuring that the latest technology was used to gather aerial intelligence. This previously untold story of the secret Cold War program makes full use of the author s firsthand knowledge of the program and of information he gained from interviews with important participants. As a founder and senior officer of the CIA s National Photographic Interpretation Center, Brugioni was a key player in keeping Eisenhower informed of developments, and he sheds new light on the president s contributions toward building an effective and technologically advanced intelligence organization. The book provides details of the president s backing of the U-2 s development and its use to dispel the bomber gap and to provide data on Soviet missile and nuclear efforts and to deal with crises in the Suez, Lebanon, Chinese Off Shore Islands, Tibet, Indonesia, East Germany, and elsewhere. Brugioni offers new information about Eisenhower s order of U-2 flights over Malta, Cyprus, Toulon, and Israel and subsequent warnings to the British, French, and Israelis that the U.S. would not support an invasion of Egypt. He notes that the president also backed the development of the CORONA photographic satellite, which eventually proved the missile gap with the Soviet Union didn't exist, and a variety of other satellite systems that detected and monitored problems around the world. The unsung reconnaissance roles played by Jimmy Doolittle and Edwin Land are also highlighted in this revealing study of Cold War espionage.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Eyes in the Sky is a superb account of an undisputed success by CIA and the rest of the intelligence community. A five-cloak, five-dagger read. --Joseph C. Goulden, The Washington Times

About the Author

Dino A. Brugioni, a retired senior analyst in the CIA, briefed presidents from Eisenhower through Ford. He was involved in the exploitation of U-2, SR-71, and satellite imagery, and discovered and analyzed World War II aerial photography taken of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. During World War II, he was a bomber crew member who flew 66 bombing missions. Now a resident of Hartwood, VA, he is also the author of Photo Fakery and The Civil War in Missouri

Product Details

• Hardcover: 466 pages
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press (March 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159114082X
• ISBN-13: 978-1591140825
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #592,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Cold War from Above, May 11, 2010

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Paul Gelman "PAUL Y. GELMAN" (HAIFA , ISRAEL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA and Cold War Aerial Espionage (Hardcover)

The Cold War was in many ways a war of shadows,where intelligence and espionage played a very important part in this ideological conflict between the superpowers.The United States lacked serious human assets who could have supplied intelligence to the policy-makers.It was this defficiency which led to the development of Sigint and its allies.One of these was aerial intelligence.
According to Dino Brugioni's new book,President Eisenhower made more than extensive use of intelligence in order to find out as much as possible about the intentions and capabilities of America's adversaries.Brugioni served as a senior analyst in the CIA and was involved in many classified projects.He has written a very important and fascinating tale about how Eisenhower was a hands-on president who took a very active part in making sure that the latest technology was harnessed to gather aerial intelligence.Because Brugioni was a founder and a senior officer of the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center,he was one of the few who had immediate access to the president and as an insider,he provides us with a superb story about the development and use of aerial intelligence during the fifties of the previous century.Many key leaders "of our country were far from convinced that acquiring photographs from balloons,airships,aircraft,or satellites was worth the cost in dollars and lives.Eisenhower had to deal with these attitudes as he rose through positions of leadership in the militay and afterward as president". The importance of imagery reconnaissance grew from Eisenhower's early years as a staff officer through WW2.As Supreme Allied commander in Europe,he knew the importance of intelligence in military decision making and did not hesitate to approve new methods of gathering intelligence- even those with risks-and he pursued them with fervor.
The first chapter of the book gives a detailed survey about the beginnings and development of photo intelligence throughout history to the end of WW2.The story then commences to describe the various sources which served the American President.Among them there were:WW2 Luftwaffe aerial photos;POW information;displaced Russians;Allied WW2 aerial photos;General Reinhard Gehlen's files and many other sources,like intelligence coming from military attaches,defectors and ex-Nazi scientists.In the early 1950s there was no coordination of military reconnaissance activities;theater commanders conducted independent activities.
The first overflight of Soviet territory took place in January 1951.Brugioni states that hundreds of crewmen were shot down while flying recoinnassance missions during the 1950s and 1960s.This this not deter Eisenhower who was determined to ensure the United Staes never again suffered another Pearl Harbor.Not everyone displayed such an enthusiasm for aerial intelligence.One of the chief opponents was General Curtis LeMay who"had a deep suspicion of the CIA and he thought scientists were interfering with his business"(p.97)Allen Dulles was a skeptic ,too, but later became an adherent of CIA aerial intelligence, especially after the U-2 was the baby of his men.The main protagonist of this project was Richard Bissell, who was a brilliant economist and had excellent abilities to coordinate and administer this mammoth and extremely costly project.The maiden flight of the U-2 was on August,4,1955 and months later,pilots were reaching 70000 feet and breaking altitude records.We get a very good description about the pilots' ordeal before, during and after their flights.
In another detailed chapter, Brugioni tells us about the missions of the U-2 during the Suez War and the Soviet invasion of Hungary,while another part of the book tells a fascinating tale abouth nine flights over the USSR whose purpose was to find out as much information about the Soviet nuclear capabilities as possible.Nuclear test centers and atomic energy compounds were photographed too and the risks were extremely high.
The 1950s were a period when the USA was more than certain that a missile gap between the two super-powers existed.However,the U-2 and many other less known secret -but declassified- projects showed clearly that this notion of a gap was a myth.
Eisenhower supported the use of aerial intelligence in the Lebanon, Tibet,Indonesia, and East Germany crises and authorized flights over Dimona in Israel and Malta.He sent Brugioni's colleagues to the European allies to demonstrate the ability of the U-2 capabilities and encouraged the development of the Corona satellite project.De Gaulle and Adenauer were mostly impressed with what they had seen and the French President did not hesitate to berate Khrushchev after Gary Powers' plane was shot down.Indeed,the theory about the missile gap was again demolished after the Soviet spy Penkovsky proved-in his many papers he smuggled out of the USSR-that the Soviets were bluffing and just bragging about their real nuclear and missile capabilities.Eisenhower hid this piece of information from the future president of the USA John.F.Kennedy during his campaign against Nixon.
This is the first book to deal with this aspect of the Cold War in such a detailed,well-documented and in-depth explanation and analysis.Tens of photos are included and at the beginning of the book Brugioni gives offers many insights into the analyst's daily job of receiving,reading and interpreting aerial photos,including the technical tools he needs in order to do this.After all Brugioni experienced everything at firsthand.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Stories from an Imagery Domain Expert, August 7, 2010

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This review is from: Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA and Cold War Aerial Espionage (Hardcover)

First lets start with the good stuff - if you're interested in military and intelligence history of the Cold War this book should be on your shelf. The CIA, NSA and NRO employed imagination, creativity and daring in building a series of imagery, elint, telint and other systems that eventually became our National Means of Technical Verification. This allowed us to peer into the closed society of what was the Soviet Union and more than likely was one of the reasons why World War III never happened. The author, who was there at the creation of the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) and had the first eyeballs on the U-2 and Corona imagery and is the true definition of an imagery domain expert.

The bad news is that domain which is the subject of this book- Eisenhower, the CIA and the Cold War - appears to be above his pay grade. The book rambles between timelines in the mid-1950's and fast forwards at random times a decade or two into the future and then jumps back to the Eisenhower administration. (It would have been a much more interesting book if he hadn't tried to constrain himself to the Eisenhower story and focused more on the evolution of overhead imagery story.) Given the author was briefing Eisenhower it's frustrating to finish the book still trying to figure out whether his role was as a junior "spear-carrier" or a decision maker. I happen to believe that the available historical data supports the authors basic claims about Eisenhower's Cold War imagery policy and strategy. But the book was so poorly edited that I couldn't tell whether his statements about the subject were speculation, opinion or first hand observation.

The book shines when the author sticks to the subject he knows best, imagery and interpretation. The stories are bright, insightful and revealing.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Invaluable Contribution to the Story of Cold War Aerial Reconnaissance, August 11, 2010

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Terry Sunday (El Paso, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA and Cold War Aerial Espionage (Hardcover)

There's no shortage of books about the Lockheed U-2. A couple of recent ones worth reading are "Spyplane: The U-2 History," by Norman Polmar, and "The U-2 Spyplane: Toward the Unknown: A New History of the Early Years," by Chris Pocock. Both of these concentrate on the development, technology and operations of the aircraft itself. "Eyes in the Sky" tells a different story. As such, is a very useful adjunct to the many U-2 books already on the market.

Mr. Brugioni was deeply involved in collecting, interpreting and exploiting overhead imagery in World War II and during the Cold War. He was a hands-on participant in the analyses of U-2 imagery that helped to dispel U.S. fears of a "bomber gap" and a "missile gap." "Eyes in the Sky" offers his unique perspective on the Eisenhower presidency, a time when the capabilities and importance of aircraft and satellite reconnaissance surged to unprecedented proportions. As the first aircraft purpose-built for photography from altitudes that (at least temporarily) rendered it immune to Soviet air defenses, the U-2 was a technological masterpiece. But that's not Mr. Brugioni's focus. His story (and a fascinating one it is) takes place largely on the light tables of the skilled imagery analysts who tirelessly scrutinized overhead photographs to extract every last morsel of intelligence value from them. His story often features the "briefing boards" that these analysts prepared for high-ranking officials and decision-makers, including the President, and on what the crystal-clear images implied to national security. As far as I know, this story has not been told in detail before. Mr. Brugioni thus adds an essential element of understanding to the history of Cold War aerial espionage.

"Eyes in the Sky" covers only the Eisenhower years. It ends at the cusp of the 1960s, after the U-2 had become obsolescent because of its vulnerability to Soviet surface-to-air missiles, but before the Corona photo-reconnaissance satellite system had become fully operational. Within that timeframe, though, this book gives as good a picture as you're likely to find of what went on "behind the scenes" at the highest levels of Government during the tumultuous 1950s.

As good as it is, "Eyes in the Sky" still has some minor but annoying errors that don't affect the accuracy or quality of its narrative, but do indicate that a competent editor should have made a final, thorough proofreading pass over the manuscript. For example, the spellings of some names are different, often in the same paragraph or within a few pages of each other. The Soviet airfield "Mys Schmidta" (an early U-2 target, and also the subject of the first successful Corona denied-area image) also appears as "Mys Schnidta." China's nuclear weapons test site is both "Lop Nor" and "Lop Nur." The name of a CIA official is variously "Sheldon" and "Shelton." The Canberra's engines were Rolls Royce "Avons," not "Avions," and "Midas" stood for "Missile Defense Alarm System," not "Missile Alarm Defense System." These errors aren't major, of course, but there are pretty many of them, and they should not be there. Perhaps Mr. Brugioni will fix them in a later edition.

"Eyes in the Sky" is still a great book, and less anal-retentive readers will probably not even notice these little faults. Mr. Brugioni's work deserves a prominent place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the Cold War, the intelligence community, the Eisenhower presidency or the early evolution of American aerial and satellite reconnaissance. I recommend it very highly.