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Dino A. Brugioni

Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA and Cold War Aerial Espionage Hardcover – Illustrated, March 15, 2010

by Dino A. Brugioni (Author)

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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.

Print length

520 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Naval Institute Press
Publication date

March 15, 2010
Dimensions

6.62 x 1.41 x 9.28 inches
ISBN-10

159114082X
ISBN-13

978-1591140825
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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 is a retired CIA analyst and worked as one of the founders of the National Photographic Interpretation Center established by the agency in 1955. In that capacity he served as Senior Officer and 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. He is the author of the bestseller, Eyeball to Eyeball. He lives in Fredericksburg, VA

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Naval Institute Press; Illustrated edition (March 15, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 520 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 159114082X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1591140825
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.82 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.62 x 1.41 x 9.28 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,033,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,004 in Espionage True Accounts
- #1,713 in Intelligence & Espionage History
- #2,040 in Political Intelligence

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Eugene N. Miya

Yet another Review reinforcing the other reviews and a little more

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2011

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An interesting contrast exists between those books given a lot of publicity, e.g., Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base , by reporters and writers versus those lesser quality written books by people there lacking the publicity machine. Lots of history books exist on the subjects of this period: the former President, the agency, and the U-2, many fine books, cleared books.

The first striking thing about this book is that it does have those modern typographic errors which basic word processing spell checkers can't catch in the index "aircraft carrie" rather than "carrier" (for that U-2 capability). One will find mention of CL-292 (a clear typo) rather than the CL-282. The editor's name appears on the dust jacket cover, somewhat embarrassing for her, a little annoying to some readers.

As a slant, the earlier part of the book doesn't show Curtis LeMay and the Strategic Air Command particularly sympathetically (not that this reviewer is partial to the USAF) but later SAC comes in line. The lack of "precision" in WWII attempts to bomb V-1 launch sites is illustrated with one photo with noting 500 attempts and no hits. A reader has to keep in mind not only modern cruise missile GPS precision but also that that "precision" has shown its limits, too (Chinese embassy). The line between the strategic and the tactical starts to blur.

The book isn't a single linear narrative. It's a patchwork of a number of topical narratives which go into a lesser documented future (e.g., Corona satellites) when reset to a local chronology on the next technical problem topic. Some readers will be interested in the aeronautic while others might be interested in the more political. The author attempts to provide his insights. One of the areas weak is the interaction between image and signals intelligence (e.g., Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage ).

The book offers in one place a few small things likely scattered (A-12 technical differences from the SR-71 like daylight only photo missions vs SAR and IR) and certain old War era roles not over the Soviet Union before the UK was allowed to train U-2 pilots (i.e., Suez). Where all these topics add up is that using Internet resources such as MS terraserver and google earth one can these same imaging targets: and they are there, still mostly there: the airfields, the SAM sites and silos (I checked out France's besides the former SU).

I'm from the post-Eisenhower era. I've heard various positives and negatives of the past-General and past-President. He comes out looking good here which make me wonder about how this book would change the thinking of those other old remote sensing types I know who didn't think much of him.

I can't suggest that this book is 5 stars, but its over all material is way above 3 stars (average). It's not a book for every body, but it did hit a few of my voids.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

An Invaluable Contribution to the Story of Cold War Aerial Reconnaissance

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2010

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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.

11 people found this helpful

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Bruce Anderson

Content great, typography too small

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2019

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I am really enjoying the content of the book but the typography is too small making it a challenging read for me. Maybe new glasses will fix this.

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Robert Archer

Highly recommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 16, 2013

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The book has been written by an insider, and therefore has a wealth of information from personal experience. I found the book fascinating, as it delves into Cold War aspects, which has largely been classified. Also, explains some of the important characters who shaped and moulded the aerial response to the Iron Curtain. Manned aircraft and satellites penetrated the Curtain, providing the US and her allies with valuable data to help build a defence network, which has enabled direct confrontation between the two super powers to eb avoided. Fascinating!

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