FURTHER THOUGHTS ON PROPOSED SR-71 ARTICLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90B00170R000200230051-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 28, 2008
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: September 1, 1981
• Content Type: MEMO

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1 September 1981
SUBJECT Further Thoughts on Proposed SR-71 Article
REFERENCE: Memorandum for the Record, dated 28 August 1981,
Subject: Proposed Article, "Development of
SR-71 Blackbirds."
1. Further to my discussion of Kelly Johnson's proposed
story on the SR-71, I realized that I had not addressed the
matter of whether or not it was clearly in the Agency's
interests to be semi-officially propelled into the forefront
by agreeing to Mr. Johnson's request to surface the CIA role
in the genesis of the reconnaissance system that later became
known as the SR-71.
2. Having been away from the policital atmospherics of
the Agency's reputation in governing circles, I can only assume
that the DCI would not object to having the Agency become the
focal point of public interest, when all signs point to the
fact that such interest would generate a favorable image for
the organization. Certainly the article contains little that
could be considered substantive intelligence, since the
technology of the airframe and engines has been dissected,
world without end, in the media, and there is no mention of any
subsystems technology whatever.
3. However, it might be argued that it is perhaps best to
let sleeping dogs lie, there having been no "declassification
event" such as came about with the U-2 in May of 1960. I feel
fairly confident that publication of the article will provoke a
number of inquiries of the Agency, and that these inquiries will
cover a broad spectrum of matters that we would certainly not
want to get specific about: running from purely administrative
things. to operations and technology. At best, these FOIA in-
quiries would be bothersome, and at worst they could continue
for some period of time, making demands upon talents that would
be better employed in other tasks. For example, the photo of
A-12s in hangar storage in California would prompt questions about
why they were not being used. The photo of ten A-12s, identified
as the "flight test fleet" taken in 1964, might prompt queries
about why this large number of test aircraft were purchased, and
at what cost to the taxpayer, etc. There may be some question
about why the A-12 was used as a test bed for the D-21 "target
drone," and besides, what was the A-12, a CIA project, doing
in.,the "target drone" business - a field commonly reserved for
the military?
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4. Certainly, the orderly progression of Kelly Johnson's
article would be spoiled without being able to attribute a
point of departure to the development of something so complex as
the SR-71. After all, it didn't just spring, like Venus from
the wave, into a full-fledged operational system.
5. Nothing I am saying deters me from what I might des-
cribe as the "common sense" recommendation I made in the
reference. At the same time, my ruminating on the matter con-
vinced me that I should give voice to my feeling that the record
of public approbation for an innovative program of many years
ago may have its other side - an added administrative burden,
imposed by all the Nosy Parkers of this life. ?
STAT
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CL,
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