Eyes in the Sky - 9781591140825

"The years of the Eisenhower presidency (1953-1961) saw the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union at its most dangerous....I was a witness to the climax of the 1958-1960 confrontation, and even a half-century after the events Mr. Brugioni describes, Eyes in the Sky still gives me the shivers." Brig. Gen John S. D. Eisenhower, USA (Ret.), 45th United States Ambassador to Belgium

"Eyes in the Sky addresses post-World War II overhead reconnaissance, photogrammetry, and the key people involved in that enterprise. Its author, Dino Brugioni, not only explains why President Dwight Eisenhower and his advisors sought internatinonal transparency through `open skies,' but how their covert reconnaissance projects succeedsed in achieving it---thus illuminating the course over which the Cold War would play out. It is a significant contribution to the history of an era." R. CARGILL HALL, Chief Historian Emeritus, National Reconnaissance Office, editor of Early Cold War Overflights, 1950-1956

"A superbly researched and skillfully written account of Eisenhower's personal role in assuring the developement of surveillance technology, such as the U2, to meet Cold War intelligence requirements, both in assessing Soviet strategic capabilities and in crisis situations such as Suez in 1956." Col. Walter Boyne, USAF (Ref.), National Aviation Hall of Fame honoree and former director of the National Air and Space Museum

"Dwight Eisenhower did more than any other president to enhance our country's intelligence capabilities. He did so by turning to engineers and scientists to harness America's then-exploding technology. These project ushered in an `Age of Enlightenment. The remarkable story of this triumph is told here by a man who witnessed it all firsthand." Albert D. Wheelon, first Deputy Director of the CIA for Science and Technology

Eyes in the Sky provides details of the president's backing of the U-2's development and its use to dispel the bomber gap, to provide data on Soviet missile and nuclear efforts, and to deal with crises in the Suez, Lebanon, Tibet, Indonesia, East Germany, and the Quemoy and Matsu Islands. 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.