Though quite a few books have been written about the operations of the Blackcat Squadron/Detachment H, very little work has been devoted to what had led to the joint U-2 reconnaissance program between the US and Taiwan. Using entries in the declassified Office of Special Activities 1954-1968 Chronology as the outline, I will blog about the prehistory of Project Tackle in a series of posts.
The redacted text in this entry could be Nationalist Chinese/Republic of China/Chinese Air Force or any combinations/variations of these words. What is significant is that none of the organizations mentioned here belong to CIA, the parent organization of OSA. CIA and USAF had been fighting for the control of the U-2 aircraft for some time; in 1957 President Eisenhowere rejected USAF’s attempt to take over the U-2 program. This entry shows us that USAF had not completely given up. At the time, ROCAF was flying penetration reconnaissance missions over China using RB-57D provided by SAC. So it was not surprising that SAC proposed an “upgrade”.
In the spring of 1959, six ROCAF pilots were sent to Laughlin AFB, TX, for training on the U-2, under the arrangement by USAF. When they were about to complete their training, CIA’s DPD Acting Chief William Burke wrote the above memo to Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, General Charles Cabell. The memo clearly shows that SAC would plan for deployment of U-2 (to Taiwan).
DDCI General Charles Cabell
Citing several reasons that CIA was in a better position for the job, Colonel Burke made the following recommendations in the memo:
DDP Richard Bissell
Deputy Director (Plans) Richard Bissell agreed with the recommendations in general but preferred a softer approach. He wrote:
Eventually CIA kicked USAF butt (again) in this matter, although I don’t have any document covering the decision process. As we shall see, CIA still had a long road to walk…