Message posted by Mark Lincoln on July 14, 2011 at 20:14:20 PST:
During the 1950s the USAF had it's 'secret' test center, and it's 'secret' program to develop a high-altitude recce plane to operate over the USSR (X-16). Lockheed proposed an alternate, and President Eisenhower chose that alternate to be developed by a civilian agency, the CIA. Eisenhower had a distrust of the ability and intention of the armed forces to produce intelligence which was not crafted to serve the armed forces more than the nation. This 'civilian' program became Angle, the U-2 and a new, non-military base was chosen to do the flight tests. Thus Groom Lake became a 'secret' test facility in an act of politics initiated by President (General of the Army) Dwight Eisenhower based upon his political decision to divorce strategic intelligence from the armed forces. The next program for Groom Lake was also a Lockheed program, and a CIA program. Then Eisenhower was retired and a new President, beholden to the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower so worried about, took power. Within a few years the USAF had a new program the SR-71 - and the CIA A-12 was headed to eventual retirement long before it was useless. We may eschew the idea of politics being involved on these forums. We cannot separate Groom Lake from Politics. Eventually the Military Industrial Complex prevailed. The CIA was out of the business of flying spy planes, and the USAF had destroyed a political threat to it's organization. Anyone who thinks that there is ANY aspect of Groom Lake which is not political has a childish view of the world. Politics is the source of money and money makes the [SECRET] world go around.
In Reply to: Re: OT - Last Flight Out posted by zipper on July 11, 2011 at 20:46:47 PST:
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