SAC PHOTOS SAVED PEACE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200350022-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 12, 2004
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: February 7, 1968
• Content Type: NSPR

01"~Axn, NEBRASKA V10RLD A P d For Release 2004/11/01: CIA-RDPtp7g13t%R0$Ai b i56DM42?')'. b+I
FES 7 1968 t
~ ~ , ~. -~
Zl-?126
688
,
S-273,709
`SAC Photos
Saved Peace'
Ex-CIA Official Tells
Of Cuban Crisis
Worid?11erNd Washington 13urenu,
L Suite 1217 National Press Buliding.
Photographs taken by Stra-
tegic Air Command pilots in
flights over Cuba during the
1962 missile crisis "proved to
be one of the intelligence in-
j gredients that may have been
,the difference between a nu-
clear war and peace."'
G. Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, for-
mer executive director of the
!Central Intelligence Agency,
! attache that importance to
the photographs in a n e w
book, "The Real CIA."
He does not mention the
Strategic Air Command in
any of his references to the
'high-flying U-2 spy plane.
During this period and aft-'t.
er the crisis began to subside,
SAC ke
t U-2's based in Flor-I
pt
Ida, it was later rep(5rted. {{
CrMRitc Ricce'll
Mr. Kirkpatrick credIts
! 'Richard Bissell, the former)
deputy director of plans for'
CIA, with making the U-2
possible.
"Bissell's gerilus produced ~
the U-2 and vast amounts of ff!
{nformntion v t.,l t
n
ti`
l
o
a
na
security," he writes.
He recalls the international
uproar when Francis Powers,
.a pilot on the CIA nay roll
c r a s h e d near Sverdlovsk,
Russia, in one of the planes
In 1960.
"This .caused one of the
most momentous flaps that I
witnessed during my time in
tho, Federal Government," re-
ports Mr, Kirkpatrick,
Ho says Mr. Powq s "con-
'"ducted himself with ,'dignity
during his interrogation and
trial and revealed nothing to
the Russians that they did not
already know."
Shocked Many
"Francis Powers and t h e
But the fact that''AC.pilots
did fly photographic missions
over Cuba in the--tense 1962
period :is not only widely
known 1...t a matter of rec.
. ord.
Early in 1964, for example,
'the Air Force Cross was
awarded posthumously to
Maj. Rudolf Andersoh, Jr., a
,'SAC flier who was k i l l e d
', when his U-2 crashed on one
,of the flights.
Based In Florida
serve full credit for t h e i r
courage and ability," he adds.
The U-2 incident in Russia
shocked many persons, who
disapproved of such intelli-
gence activities, the ex-CIA
official notes.
"But even those skeptics
,were consoled after the Cu-
The d e c o r ation was pre-!'ban missile crisis of 1962
rented to his wife by G e n. I when the U-2 was put back
-Thomas S. Power, then they 'on the'mantel of respectabil-
l.SAC commander-in-chief. ity a.f t, e r 'its photography
The citation accompanying! proved to be one of the in-
it said: telligenc'e ingredients t h a t
r,. "While executing these aer may have been the difference'
;; ial missions, Major Anderson between a nuclear war a n d
,made photographs which pro eace," he .V ites,
,vided conclusive evidence ofi --
the introduction of Iong
.'range offensive missiles Into,
Cuba and which materially,
r'assisted our leaders in chart-i
ing the nation's military and,I
i ',diplomatic course."
'?' Photographs of the deploy- .
;ment of Soviet missiles led to
? a' confrontation with Russia;
I. !.O , '1 Sty SI)
I C) 4
+ 4V ea7 a e- 9tA
1-0.0
when President Kennedy or-S
dered a ' naval blockade of}
'Cuba.:.
Approved For Release 2004/11/01 : CIA-RDPOS-01350R000200350022-2