Communist China’s protest on September 10, 1958, marks the first time the regime issued a protest against U-2 overflights. Earlier overflights in 1957 did not draw attention from the Chinese, probably because they had never been detected. The September 10 mission, coded 6019, might have originated from the following intelligence request:
Note that this document bears the signature of then Chief of Naval Operations, Arleigh Burke, after whom the Aegis-equipped USS DDG-51 destroyer was named.
This time I am not going to post the Mission Coverage Summary, but the OXY instead. I am not sure what OXY stands for. But the document looks like a quick, albeit sometimes rough, interpretation of the “take”. Although the following document only says that the information was from a “completely reliable source”, the heading “OXY 6019” and the information date reveal it was the result from U-2 Mission 6019.
The OXY shows that there might have been some aircraft movement, but no major reinforcement of fighter aircraft. Most important is that there had been no unusual activities either at military installations or at the sea: The Communists were not preparing an amphibious assault on Quemoy.