I’m currently gathering material on for my dissertation (The U-2 from the UK perspective) and I’m kind of run in to a brick wall.
I was wondering if anyone here would have any ideas, sources or leads.
The main sticking point is that I am looking for primary source materal on the negotations of basing rights in the UK and the agreement forged between Bissel and the governments of the UK and Germany on flying U-2’s from their territory thereby bypassing Eisenhower.
However I’m currenly drawing a blank, there is some material on the initial training flights at Lakenheath, England before the transfer to Germany but nothing after that.
I’ve found three documents on the CIA FOIA website but queries to the National Archives in the UK have been less that successful. They have only given me leads to files dealing with the Powers shootdown in 1960 though I have found one reference to “Project AQUATONE” in a 1957 file.
Having done a master’s dissertation in Cold War history, I think the inevitable end to your quest for primary source material will lead you to the US National Archives in College Park, Maryland, Kew Gardens in London, and the German archives (wherever they are - I’m more of a Cold War in East Asia guy). It is not really clear from the OP that you have actually visited these places, as opposed to checking out websites.
I’m at a loss on how to do a good dissertation on this subject without actually visiting at least two of those three places.
As far as internet resources, however, the National Security Archive at George Washington University has a great collection on the Cold War, and has even digitized some documents. But, again, if you are serious about the dissertation, a visit to GW – which is only a 30 minute drive from College Park – is essential. Relying on the scanned documents alone would present a very limited view of any historical topic, and would likely result in a rather poor reading of history.