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Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev, and the U-2 Affair
Mayday Eisenhower Khrushchev and the U-2 Affair Author:Michael R. Beschloss Francis Gary Powers, discharged from the USAF in '56 as a captain, joined CIA's U-2 program. U-2s flew at over 70,000', invulnerable to Soviet anti-aircraft weapons, taking high-resolution photos from the stratosphere of military and other sites. Soviet intelligence had been aware of them since '56, but lacked counter-measures ... more »39;til '60. Powers’ U-2, which departed from a military airbase in Peshawar, Pakistan and may have received support from the US Air Station at Badaber, was shot down over Sverdlovsk by an S-75 Dvina Surface to Air missile on 5/1/60. He was unable to activate a self-destruct mechanism and unwilling to commit suicide before parachuting. Eight S-75 missiles had been launched. The 1st had hit. One hit a MiG-19 interceptor unable to attain sufficient altitude. Pilot Sergey Safronov crashed in a forest rather than bail out and risk crashing into Degtyarsk. A unarmed Su-9 in transit was directed to ram. It failed because of speed differences. When the US government learned of the disappearance, it issued a cover statement claiming a weather pilot had crashed after oxygen difficulties. What CIA didn't realize was that the plane crashed almost intact. Powers was interrogated by the KGB for months before confessing and apologizing. The incident set back talks between Khrushchev and Eisenhower. On 8/17/60, he was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and 7 years hard labor. He was held east of Moscow in Vladimirsky Central Prison--now containing a small museum with an exhibit on him--and allegedly got on with prisoners there. On 2/10/62, he was exchanged along with American student Frederic Pryor in a publicized spy swap for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel), a Soviet colonel who was caught by the FBI and jailed for espionage, at Berlin's Glienicke Bridge.« less