
Covert Operations 195
the late 1940s, the United States used modied bombers to try to penetrate
the Soviet Union and its satellite states. Between 1951 and 1956, Presidents
Truman and Eisenhower and Prime Minister Churchill periodically and on
a case-by-case basis authorized these military overights of the USSR and
other “denied territory.”
As the needs for surveillance increased, new aircra, including the U-2
and the SR-71, were developed. Beginning in 1956, the CIA commenced
U-2 overights from West Germany over the Soviet Union. Soviet over-
ights were not without cost. rough the end of April 1960, there had
been 23 successful U-2 ove