Francis Gary Powers and the 1960 U-2 Incident: The History and Legacy of the Fateful Spy Plane Mission That Changed the Cold War
ISBN: 9781518654770
$6.99
*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the mission and the trial written by Powers and others *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents “I must tell you a secret. When I made my first report I deliberately did not say that the pilot was alive and well...and now just look how many silly things the Americans have said.” – Nikita Khrushchev “Mr. Chairman, on May 1 the Soviet Government captured, 1300 miles inside the boundaries of the Russian empire, an American plane, operated by an American pilot, under the direction and control of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and is now holding both the plane and the pilot. The plane was on an espionage mission...The activity…[was] under the aegis of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, for whom all members of the subcommittee have the highest regard and in whose military capacity they have the utmost confidence.” – Clarence Cannon, House Appropriations Chair In September 1959, Nikita Khrushchev became the first Soviet leader to visit the United States, and for 13 days, he toured the country, fueling a media frenzy. Landing at Washington D.C. with his wife Nina Petrovna and his adult children, he proceeded to visit New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Iowa, Pittsburgh, and Washington. The end of the trip included a meeting with President Eisenhower at Camp David, where the two leaders agreed to hold a four-power summit about Berlin to settle the issues on the city. Khrushchev left the U.S. considering his visit a success, believing he had developed a strong relationship with Eisenhower, and though the latter did not exactly feel the same way, the president was scheduled to visit Moscow in 1960. It was a visit that was to not to take place, because on May 1, 1960, Soviet surface-to-air missiles shot down a U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers