Flashes in the Dark Volume 1

Flashes in the Dark. explores one of the least known aspects of Cold War military history: the secret aerial missions carried out in Argentina by the United States Air Force. Drawing on over twenty years of research across archives, photographs, and eyewitness accounts, the book reveals how, under the guise of meteorological and scientific work, the USAF conducted operations on Argentine soil and in its airspace-often without the knowledge of local authorities. The study traces these activities to the birth of the USAF in 1947 and the creation of its Air Force Office of Atomic Energy (AFOAT-1), responsible for detecting foreign nuclear tests through the Atomic Energy Detection System (AEDS). This organisation-later the Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC)-achieved its first major success in identifying the Soviet Union's secret atomic test of 1949. Using aircraft such as the Douglas C-47, C-54, and WB-29, US operations expanded globally, including from Argentina, where missions sought uranium deposits and monitored local nuclear experiments. Conducted under the highest security classifications, these flights left virtually no official trace, even within the Argentine Air Force. By assembling scattered evidence and newly unearthed documents, Flashes in the Dark. lifts the veil on decades of concealed US military activity in Latin America and offers a foundation for future research into the region's Cold War intelligence landscape.