7 Jan 54: RB-45C lost over Yellow Sea – crew survives

Apr 54: The complete nuclear bomber wareheads were went to Britain base for nuclear B-29 strike

1 May 54: Mya-4 (Bison) multi-engined jet bomber revealed at Moscow airshow

4 Sep 54: MiG-15’s shoot down RB-29 off Hokkaido and P2V-5 lost the same day in the same area

17 Oct 54: USAF flies RB-47 PHOTINT mission over Kola Peninsula in Northwest USSR

7 Nov 54: RB-29 lost while conducting mission near Hokkaido, Sea of Japan

26 Nov 54: President Eisenhower approves CIA manage Lockheed development of U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft

Mar 55: USAF flies RB-45 missions over Soviet block and Western USSR

Mar – May: SAC conducts shallow overflights of Novaya Zemlya, coastal islands, and into northern USSR with RB-47’s

1 Mar 55: U.S. tests first thermonuclear device

17 Apr 55: First RB-47 lost to Soviet fighters off Kamchatka peninsula

1 May 55: TU-95 (BEAR) bomber (thought to be on par with B-52) showcased at the Moscow May Day parade

22 Jun 55: USN P2V-5 lost while conducting SIGINT mission in Bearing Straits

13 Jul 55: U.S. Air Attache reports seeing “scores” of Soviet Mya-4 BISON bombers streaming past at Aviation Day air show – thus affecting a great increase in the NIE regarding number of Soviet bombers being produced and creating a Bomber Gap theory

21 Jul 55: President Eisenhower proposes an OPEN SKIES initiative at the Geneva Summit – rejected by Party Secretary Nikita Krushchev

22 Nov 55: Soviets drop a thermonuclear bomb from a Tu-16 – just 9 months after the first U.S. thermonuclear explosion

Jan-Feb 56: Soviet testing of long-range missiles and U.S. media starts to form Missile Gap theories

20 Jun 56: CIA U-2 reconnaissance aircraft begins operational missions over Eastern Europe from Weisebaden AB, Germany

4-10 Jul 56: U-2 aircraft conducts first overflight of the USSR (first of five overflights conducted 4 through 10 July 1956)

26 Jul 56: Egyptain President Nasser nationalizes the Suez canel company among other U.S. British and French holdings.

22 Aug 56: USN P4M-1Q shot down while conducting mission north of Formosa, near Wenchon, PRC

10 Sep 56: Special SIGINT-configured RB-50G lost over Sea of Japan

23 Oct 56: Massive popular demonstrations lead to overthrow of Hungarian government–Soviet troops withdraw from Budapest

Nov 56: After arrival of reinforcements, Soviet troops crack down and suppress the Hungarian uprising

29 Nov 56: CIA U-2 crosses over into USSR and photographs Yerevan

11 Dec 56: Three USAF RB-57’s conducted simultaneous PHOTINT overflight of Vladivostok from three different directions

22 Dec 56: First ELINT-equipped U-2 aircraft flew mission #4019 along the Soviet border between Black and Caspain Seas