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The
unfolding drama reveals as much about aerial
surveillance and high diplomacy during the Cold War as
it does about personal courage in the face of sudden
adversity. The U2 plane was essentially a powered
glider capable of cruising at an altitude of over 60,000
feet. U2s began reconnaissance missions over the USSR
in 1956 and were equipped with high-resolution cameras
to document Moscow’s missile build-up.
The planes were
designed by Lockheed, operated by the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA, aka the agency), and flown by
civilian pilots “sheep dipped” from the U.S. Air Force
and under contract to the Agency. In case of an
incident, each plane carried an explosive charge to
destroy the film and camera, and each pilot was offered
an optional poison pin. These measures were meant to
ensure that sensitive imagery intelligence would not
fall into the wrong hands and reassure the pilot that he
always had the option of taking his own life if captured
and facing possible torture.
The
Soviets knew about the over flights but kept quiet for
fear that public accusations would simply highlight
their impotence. Indeed, they tracked every U2 mission
over the USSR by radar but were unable to intercept any
of them due to their extreme altitude. Apparently,
Powers simply had bad luck.
Powers' projected flight from
Peshawar, Pakistan to Bodo, Norway was to take 9 ½ hours
and cover 3788 miles, most of it in Soviet airspace.
However, at Sverdlovsk in the Urals he passed over two
Soviet battalions equipped with new S-75
surface-to-air-missiles (SAM). It was one of the SAMs
that exploded behind Powers and tore the flimsy U2
apart. Another SAM, mistakenly fired, hit a MiG flying
below Powers, killing the Soviet pilot. Against all
odds, Powers was able to parachute safely to the ground
where he was immediately arrested and taken for
interrogation to the dreaded KGB headquarters at the
Lubyanka in Moscow.
The
disappearance of Powers’ U2 occurred at a critical
moment in U.S.-Soviet relations. The leaders of the four
Allied nations of World War II—Dwight Eisenhower for the
United States, Nikita Khrushchev for the Soviet Union,
Harold Macmillan for Great Britain and Charles de Gaulle
for France—were about to convene in Paris to discuss a
range of issues troubling the relations between their
states. Khrushchev, for one, hoped to make headway with
his proposal to have Berlin neutralized and denuded of
Western troops.
On May
1, 1960, U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers was navigating
his U2 reconnaissance aircraft over the Ural Mountains
deep inside the Soviet Union, when suddenly a dull thump
rocked the plane and a tremendous orange flash lit the
cockpit and sky. “My God, I’ve had it now!” Powers
exclaimed as his plane began spinning. The Story of U2
pilot Francis Gary Powers by Thomas Boghardt – Historian
– International Spy Museum, Washington, D.C. Ignorant of
Powers’ fate, CIA Deputy Director for Plans Richard
Bissell informed President Eisenhower that the pilot’s
chance of survival was “one in a million”. When the
Soviets announced that a U.S. plane had penetrated their
airspace and gone down, the State Department therefore
replied deceptively that an American weather plane gone
off course and possibly crashed in the USSR.
The
American cover story was issued under the assumption
that the Soviets had not captured the pilot alive and
available to corroborate their claim. On May 7, 1960,
Khrushchev revealed to the Supreme Soviet and the world
that Powers was alive, and to a chorus of “shame, shame”
and “bandits, bandits” touted photographs allegedly
taken by the U2 camera. Against advice from the British
prime minister and the U.S. ambassador to Moscow to stay
silent, Eisenhower now publicly assumed full
responsibility for the U2 flight. On the opening day of
the Paris summit, May 16, 1960, Khrushchev demanded from
Eisenhower an apology, an assurance that U2 over
flights over the Soviet Union cease and punishment of
the guilty. Predictably, Eisenhower declined. In
response, Khrushchev not only left the summit but also
peremptorily cancelled a scheduled presidential visit to
Moscow. America’s public humiliation seemed complete.
Newsweek reported that espionage experts had expected
Powers to perish and Aviation Week wrote of Powers’
survival. Eisenhower angrily assumed Powers had “started
talking as soon as he hit the ground.” Meanwhile, Powers
languished in a Soviet prison. In 1962, Powers was
swapped for a Soviet spy and returned to the United
States where the CIA thoroughly debriefed him. The
Agency came down firmly on Powers’ side—they reported
that Powers’ had a poison pen that he could use if he
was being tortured. The CIA said the use of the poison
pin was entirely optional, its final report concluded,
and he only failed to activate the camera’s destruct
mechanism due to the extreme g-forces in his rapidly
sinking plane. In addition, the report pointed out, in
case of capture he was at liberty to tell his captors
all about his mission except for certain technical data.
In short, Powers had acted in complete accordance with
his instructions. The following year, he was awarded the
CIA’s coveted Intelligence Star. Still, the CIA’s report
was classified for many years.
Sadly,
Francis Gary Powers died in a helicopter crash in 1977.
Powers’ final vindication would not come until 2006 when
two researchers, Timothy Naftali and Aleksander
Fursenko, discovered the notes of his interrogation in
Moscow. Although questioned for eleven hours a day,
every day, Powers said little of consequence and nothing
proscribed by the CIA’s policy for captured pilots. He
even concealed from his captors the U2’s cruising
altitude, how often he had over flown Soviet territory
and the names of his CIA superiors. He also refused to
explain for several days how he had maintained radio
contact with U.S. authorities. Overall, he displayed
remarkable nerve, breaking out in tears only when his
interrogators read him a comment from his father. When
they suggested he was sent deliberately to scuttle the
Paris summit, Powers’ response was curt and patriotic:
“I don’t know why I was sent. There must have been good
reasons.”
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Francis Gary
Powers left the United States Air Force with the rank of captain in
1956, to join the CIA U2 program. U2 pilots carried out espionage
missions using a spy plane that could reach altitudes above 70,000
feet, essentially making it invulnerable to Soviet anti-aircraft
weapons of the time. The U2 was equipped with a state-of-the-art
camera designed to snap high-resolution photos from the edge of the
atmosphere over hostile countries that included the Soviet Union.
These cameras systematically photographed military installations and
other important intelligence targets.
Soviet
intelligence, including the KGB, had been well aware of U2 missions
since 1956, but lacked the technology to launch counter-measures
until 1960. Powers’ U2, which departed from a military airbase in
Peshawar and may have received support from the US Air Station at
Badaber (Peshawar Airbase), near Peshawar in Pakistan, was shot down
by an S-75 Dvina (SA-2 Surface to Air) missile on May 1, 1960, over
Sverdlovsk. Powers was unable to activate the plane's self-destruct
mechanism, as instructed, before he parachuted to the ground and
into the hands of the KGB.
When the U.S.
government learned of Powers' disappearance over the Soviet Union,
it issued a cover statement claiming that a "weather plane" had
crashed down after its pilot had "difficulties with his oxygen
equipment”. What U.S. officials did not realize was that the plane
crashed almost fully intact, and the Soviets recovered its
photography equipment, as well as Powers, whom they interrogated
extensively for months before he made a "voluntary confession “and
public apology for his part in U. S. espionage. Ultimately the whole
incident would set back the peace talks between Khrushchev and
Eisenhower for years.
On August 17,
1960, Powers was convicted of espionage against the Soviet Union. He
was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison, three years of
imprisonment followed by seven years of hard labor. Powers was held
in the famous "Vladimirsky Central" prison in the city of Vladimir,
east of Moscow. This prison had been used to hold other high-profile
prisoners, such as the son of Joseph Stalin. The prison, which is
still active today, contains a small museum that includes an exhibit
on Powers. Francis Gary Powers had a good rapport with Russian
prisoners during his time there. On February 10, 1962, twenty-one
months after his capture, he was exchanged along with American
student Frederic Pryor in a spy swap for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam
Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel) at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, Germany.
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