The recent release of classified documents concerning the CIA’s secret reconnaissance project, the U-2, has rekindled a fascination with the program. However, it is not just the program that has caught the public’s eye. The amount of disinformation that surrounded the U-2 is just as interesting as the project itself.

One aspect of that disinformation was discussed in a previous article about when the government noticed an increased number of UFO reports and did little to dispel the UFO myth. Another disinformation campaign concerning the U-2 occurred in 1960 and a major participant was NASA.

The U-2 program began in 1954 in an effort to build a high altitude reconnaissance plane. When the U-2 began flying covert missions, President Eisenhower began laying the foundation for a cover story. In case the plane was seen, or captured, the President wanted people to believe that the U-2 was not anything more than a research plane used for weather research domestically and abroad.

In an attempt to give the story some sense of validity, the President had the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NASA ‘s predecessor, issue a press release claiming that the aircraft was theirs and that all it was studying was weather.

Even though the press release officially came from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, many (including foreign governments) did not buy the cover story.









U-2 Shot Down

On May 1, 1960, the American government’s worse fear became a reality when the U-2, flying a secret mission over the Soviet Union, was shot down. When news reached the President, it was decided that the weather research story was the story they would stick to. Therefore, to address the downed plane and the missing pilot, NASA issued another statement, which read:

“One of NASA’s U-2 Research Airplanes, in use since 1956 in a continuing program to study gust-meteorological conditions found at high altitude, has been missing since about 9 o’clock Sunday morning.” (1)

The statement went on to describe the weather mission in great detail. A mission that was purely fictitious.

In the statement, NASA also was sure to add that the men on the plane were only researchers and not affiliated with any branch of the military. This lack of affiliation should exempt them from being treated as prisoners of war.

Along with the cover story, NASA also displayed a U-2 with NASA logos and series numbers in an attempt to convince the media, but moreover, the Soviets that the U-2 was nothing more than a research aircraft.

Even though NASA and the CIA did their best to create a disinformation campaign to keep the U-2’s real purpose a secret, all of that came to a head on May 7, 1960.