Cold War Satellite Photos Are Declassified by CIA

In a dramatic opening of its secretive past, the CIA announced Friday that it will release 800,000 formerly classified Cold War-era photographs taken from spy satellites over the former Soviet Union.

It is the first such declassification since the early generation American reconnaissance satellites began monitoring Soviet military sites in August, 1960.

The photos, only four of which were immediately available, cover virtually the entire territory of the former Soviet Union as well as much of the rest of the Earth. The full collection will not be publicly available for another 18 months because the photos first will be catalogued by the National Archives.

Among the four photos released Friday is a somewhat fuzzy shot of an airstrip near Mys Schmidta on the Chukchi Sea in the Soviet Far East. Taken Aug. 18, 1960, it was the first target of the first successful satellite mission.

Also released was a picture of a Soviet strategic bomber base, with Bison long-range bombers clearly visible on the airfield parking apron, near Dolon in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. The shot was taken Aug. 20, 1966.

The other two photos released are of a volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East and of the Aral Sea on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

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The declassification is part of a broader effort--including the release last fall of the CIA’s first assessments of Soviet nuclear forces--to disclose more of what U.S. intelligence agencies knew, or failed to learn, during the Cold War.

Vice President Al Gore made the announcement at a ceremony at CIA headquarters in suburban Langley, Va., standing in front of one of the early satellite camera systems, which at the time were unmatched technological marvels.

“They enabled three American presidents to deal with their Soviet counterparts armed with unprecedented knowledge about the cards the Soviets were holding on their side of the bargaining table,” Gore said. He urged Russia to follow the Clinton Administration’s example and declassify its older satellite photos, which naturally include detailed images of much of North America.

Besides being valuable to military historians, the early CIA satellite photos can also be helpful to environmental scientists, Gore said, to provide a historic base line for the study of deforestation and global climate change.

Gore said the photos eventually will be available on the Internet computer network.