Dark Eagles: A History of the Top Secret U.S. Aircraft

166

McIninch, 'The Oxcart Story,' 35.

167

Memorandum for the President: Agenda for Luncheon with Secretaries Rusk and McNamara (Lyndon B. Johnson Library: Austin, Tex., February 28, 1964).

168

McIninch, 'The Oxcart Story,' 36.

169

Crickmore, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, 47.

170

A-12/SR-71 Lecture, San Diego Aerospace Museum, June 14, 1991.

171

Crickmore, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, 65–70.

172

McIninch, 'The Oxcart Story,' 38.

173

Dean Rusk, Memorandum for the President, Subject: Warning to Cubans and Soviets against Interference with our Aerial Surveillance of Cuba (Lyndon B. Johnson Library: Austin, Tex., March 15, 1964).

174

Memorandum for the President, Re: NSC Agenda, Tuesday, May 5, 1964 (Lyndon B. Johnson Library: Austin, Tex.). There was no intention of using the A-12 over the Soviet Union, except in a national emergency. Satellites could provide routine coverage of the USSR with zero political risk.

However, in the 1960s, the number of satellites was too small to allow them to cover targets in Cuba, North Vietnam, or North Korea.

175

McIninch, 'The Oxcart Story,' 38, 39.

176

Jay Miller, Lockheed SR-71 (A-12/YF-12/D-21) (Austin, Tex.: Aerofax, 1984), 6.

177

McIninch, 'The Oxcart Story,' 38.

178

Jay Miller, Lockheed U-2 (Austin, Tex.: Aerofax, 1983), 21; and Electronic Spies (Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1991), 36.

179

SR-71/A-12/YF-12 Flights/Checkout, Edwards AFB History Office, June 14, 1991.

180

Crickmore, Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed, 16, 41.

181