Secret Empire : Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage

During the early and most dangerous years of the Cold War, a handful of Americans secretly built machines that revolutionized spying and warfare and protected the United States from a surprise nuclear attack.

In a brief period of explosive, top-secret innovation during the 1950''s, a small group of scientists, engineers, businessmen, and government officials rewrote the book on airplane design and led the United States into outerspace. Their inventions - the U-2 and SR-71 spyplanes and the first spy satellites - made possible the space-based reconnaissance, mapping, communications, and targeting systems used in the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Veteran New York Times reporter and editor, Philip Taubman interviewed dozens of participants and mined thousands of previously classified documents to tell this hidden, far-reaching story. The hugely expensive and incredibly sophisticated spies in the skies proved that the missile gap was a myth, protected us from surprise attack, and kept us ahead of the game vis-a-vis the Soviets. Now as we confront new and increasingly vicious wars against terrorism, we need them as well as human spies to fight back.