The origins of the Yom Kippur War of October 1973 may be traced to the Suez Crisis in 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized U-2 flights over the Middle East. By the onset of the June 1967 Six-Day War, the United States had acquired a significant amount of aerial and satellite imagery over "targets" in that area. The CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) had an experienced and dedicated complement of imagery intelligence officers, capable of melding the imagery derived with collateral information to produce accurate and timely intelligence reporting.
