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.
