Area 51_ An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base - Annie Jacobsen [220]
17. The brand was Laika: Powers, Operation Overflight, 91.
18. “We believed that if a U-2 was shot”: Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, 121–22. But Bissell also admitted that the Agency agreed “unanimously” that the “big rolls of film aboard the plane would not be destroyed… Their nonflammable base would prevent them from burning, and they could be dropped from a height of ten miles and survive. We always knew that in the event of a crash there was going to be a couple rolls of film lying around, and there was not much we could do about it.”
19. the White House claimed: Department of State, for the Press, No. 249, May 6, 1960; Department of State, for the Press, No. 254, May 9, 1960.
20. But Khrushchev had evidence: Incoming telegram, Department of State, Control 6700, May 10, 1969.
21. With great bravado: W. Taubman, Khrushchev, 455–58.
22. “I would like to resign”: P. Taubman, Secret Empire, 396.
23. Eisenhower wouldn’t bow: Bamford, Body of Secrets, 53–54. “For Eisenhower, the whole process was quickly turning into Chinese water torture. Every day he was being forced to dribble out more and more of the story.”
24. “the first time any nation had publicly admitted”: Brugioni, Eyeball to Eyeball, 49.
25. authorized a Soviet military base: Ibid., 55.
26. twenty-five minutes’ time: Havana, Cuba, to Washington, DC, is 1,130 miles. In 1960, a Russian missile traveled at approximately Mach 3.5.
27. During Powers’s trial: “Report on Conclusion of Powers Trial, USSR International Affairs,” August 22, 1960, approved for release September 1985, 39 pages.
28. “Las Vegas firing range (poligon) in the Nevada desert”: Ibid., RB-6.
29. “criminal conspiracy”: Ibid.
30. “follower of Hitler”: Ibid., RB-20.
31. Watertown as the U-2 training facility: Powers, Operation Overflight, 114.
32. out at the Ranch: Parangosky, The Oxcart Story, 6–7.
33. Richard Bissell had a tennis court put in: Interview with Dr. Wheelon.
34. Prohibited Area P-275: Interview with Peter Merlin.
35. “thirteen million different parts”: Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, 133.
36. the titanium that first held everything up: Pedlow and Welzenbach, Central Intelligence Agency, 21–22.
37. nearly 95 percent of what Lockheed initially received: Robarge, Archangel, 11.
38. Russia was spending billions of rubles: Interview with Ed Lovick.
39. “who thought ELINT was a dirty word”: Poteat, “Engineering and the CIA,” 24.
40. Barnes was recruited by the CIA: Interview with Barnes; CIA Personal Resume, 1966, Barnes, Thornton Duard.
41. Castro’s regime “must be overthrown”: Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, 153.
42. “Richard Bissell,” Kennedy said: Thomas, “Wayward Spy,” 36.
43. put a bullet in his own head: Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, 303.
44. Bahía de Cochinos, or the Bay of Pigs: Kirkpatrick, The Real CIA, chapter 8; Pfeiffer, CIA’s Official History of the Bay of Pigs; Warner, “CIA’s Internal Probe.”
45. could help in gathering intel: Oral history interview with Richard M. Bissell Jr. by Theodore A. Wilson and Richard D. McKinzie, East Hartford, Connecticut, July 9, 1971.
46. Bissell blamed the mission’s failure on his old rival General Curtis LeMay: Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, 176. In discussing the decision of the Joint Chiefs, which included LeMay sitting in for the commandant of the Marines, “to cancel the air strikes so readily,” Bissell stated, “one could make a case that their view reflected rivalry between the air force and the CIA. The agency’s earlier success with the overhead reconnaissance programs had disturbed certain high-ranking members of the air force.” Certainly he is referring to LeMay. “Friends of mine in the military spoke frankly to me about this,” Bissell added. “There was no denying that the sentiment existed among military that all the air activities undertaken by the CIA in the U-2, SR-71 [note: Oxcart had not been declassified yet] and spy satellite programs should have come under jurisdiction of the air force. Robert Amory recalled in a 1966 interview that, after I was put