 The U-2, the American spy plane designed to peek behind the Iron Curtain, had an interesting history with foreign pilots, including one program, Operation Tackle, that used Chinese nationalist pilots. Two, one, we have a liftoff, thirty-two minutes past you. Hello everyone, I'm Amy, this is The Vintage Space, my little corner of the internet where we talk about all things mid-century tech and science that, quite frankly, interest me, like Cold War aerial espionage, a topic into which I've been doing a deep dive lately. I have three videos up already covering the CIA's YouTube program, with a focus on American Soviet relations. But there was one element I had included in my most recent video on the Gary Powers incident that I ended up cutting for time. The video was an hour long, and I had to trim some stuff to make it a little more digestible. So here's a little excerpt about Chinese nationalist pilots that I think is super interesting, but felt too tangential to the main Gary Powers video. So I'm going to magically change clothes and tell you about it. One interesting iteration that flew during the 1960s was Detachment H, a detachment that used Chinese nationalist pilots under Project Tackle. The cooperation between American and Chinese nationalist pilots started in 1952 when the CIA brought them into the fold for the Civil Air Transport under Project BG Mark, a program that gathered photographic coverage of the railway from Shanghai to French Indochina. In 1955, Project ST Polly used agency aircraft with nationalist Chinese pilots to gather sigint and conduct psychological warfare against the People's Republic of China. When it came to the U-2, the CIA initially opposed Chinese nationalist pilots because it would destroy the cover story of the plane-flying weather flights, but a handful were trained nevertheless, though they never flew missions. After the May Day incident, once the cover story was completely destroyed and the CIA needed a new base in the Far East after Japan asked the Americans to leave, missile suggested turning U-2s over to nationalist China for a new program run along the lines of ST Polly. On August 26, 1960, Eisenhower approved the idea, swayed in part by the added deniability of U.S. involvement should something happen to one of those planes. Though this wasn't a new U.S. detachment, the American government maintained strict control over the missions. The transfer occurred on December 7th of 1960. The two U-2s officially licensed for export to nationalist China fell under Detachment H. The principal interest in China was over nuclear energy and missile development. Chinese nationalist pilots flew the first mission on January 12, 1962 over the missile testing range at Xiao Chenzi. Three more missions in June covered high priority installations, but the pace of flight slowed in August of 1962 when the People's Republic of China accused the United States of masterminding these flights. Kennedy very plausibly denied responsibility, saying the planes were transferred before his administration took office, but it was a setback nonetheless. And back to the other outfit. Quick reminder that my new book, Fighting for Space, is available however you like to consume books, as is my first breaking the chains of gravity. I have links to both of those in the description below. I want to give a very special shout out to all of my Patreon backers and YouTube members. You guys truly make these videos possible, so thank you so much for your ongoing support. If you would like to help keep the vintage space up and running, and also get access to my Space Center to Discord, I've got all the links you need in the description. And of course, links on how to connect across social media as well. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today for this brief little addition to the YouTube series, and I'll see you all next time.