U-2 Affair

From New World Encyclopedia
File:GPN-2000-000112.jpg
U–2 with fictitious NASA markings and serial number. NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base on 6 May 1960 (NASA)

The U–2 Crisis of 1960 occurred when an American U–2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. The U.S. denied the true purpose of the plane, but was forced to admit it when the U.S.S.R. produced the living pilot and the largely intact plane to corroborate their claim of being spied on aerially. The incident worsened East–West relations during the Cold War and was a great embarrassment for the United States.

Event

On May 1, 1960, fifteen days before the scheduled opening of an East–West summit conference in Paris, a U.S. Lockheed U–2 spy plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, left Peshawar, Pakistan intending to overfly the Soviet Union and land at Bodø, Norway. The goal of the mission was to photograph ICBM development sites in and around Sverdlovsk and Plesetsk in the Soviet Union. Attempts to intercept the plane by Soviet fighters failed due to the U–2’s extreme altitude, but eventually one of the fourteen SA–2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles launched at the plane managed to get close enough. According to Soviet defector Viktor Belenko, a Soviet fighter pursuing Powers was caught and destroyed in the missile salvo.[1] Powers’s aircraft was badly damaged, and crashed near Sverdlovsk, deep inside Soviet territory. Powers was captured after making a parachute landing.

American cover-up and exposure

Four days after Powers disappeared, NASA issued a very detailed press release noting that an aircraft had “gone missing” north of Turkey. The press release speculated that the pilot might have fallen unconscious while the autopilot was still engaged, even claiming that “the pilot reported over the emergency frequency that he was experiencing oxygen difficulties.” To bolster this, a U–2 plane was quickly painted in NASA colors and shown to the media.

The wreck of Francis Gary Powers’s U–2.
U–2 incident exhibit at the National Cryptologic Museum.

After hearing this, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev announced to the Supreme Soviet, and thus the world, that a “spyplane” had been shot down, whereupon the U.S. issued a statement claiming that it was a “weather research aircraft” which had strayed into Soviet airspace after the pilot had “difficulties with his oxygen equipment” while flying over Turkey. The Eisenhower White House, presuming Powers was dead, gracefully acknowledged that this might be the same plane, but still proclaimed that “there was absolutely no deliberate attempt to violate Soviet airspace and never has been”, and attempted to continue the facade by grounding all U–2 aircraft to check for “oxygen problems.”

On May 7, Khrushchev announced:[2] Template:"

Not only was Powers still alive, but his plane was also essentially intact. The Soviets managed to recover the surveillance camera and even developed the photographs. Powers’s survival pack, including 7500 rubles and jewelry for women, was also recovered. Today a large part of the wreck as well as many items from the survival pack are on display at the Central Museum of Armed Forces in Moscow. A small piece of the plane was returned to the United States and is on display at the National Cryptologic Museum.[3]

Aftermath

File:Francis-Gary-Powers trial cia.jpg
The trial of Francis Gary Powers.

The Paris Summit between Dwight Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev collapsed, in large part because Eisenhower refused to make apologies over the incident, demanded by Khrushchev. Khrushchev left the talks on May 16.

Powers pleaded guilty and was convicted of espionage on August 19 and sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment and 7 years of hard labor. He served one and three-quarter years of the sentence before being exchanged for Rudolf Abel on February 10, 1962. The exchange occurred on the Glienicke Bridge connecting Potsdam, East Germany to West Berlin.

Another result of the crisis was that the U.S. Corona spy satellite project was accelerated, while the CIA accelerated the development of the A–12 OXCART supersonic spyplane that first flew in 1962 and began developing the Lockheed D-21/M-21 unmanned drone.


References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  1. Burrows, William E. 1986. Deep black space espionage and national security. New York: Random House. ISBN 9780394541242
  2. Prouty, L. Fletcher (1973). The Secret Team, 1997 electronic ed.. 
  3. U–2 Incident.
  • Beschloss, Michael R. 1987. MAYDAY, the U-2 affair the untold story of the greatest U.S.-U.S.S.R. spy scandal. New York, NY: Harper & Row. ISBN 9780060914073
  • Cook, Fred J. 1973. The U-2 incident, May, 1960 an American spy plane downed over Russia intensifies the cold war. New York: F. Watts.
  • Garmon, Linda, and Roy Scheider. 2003. Spy in the sky. Boston: WGBH. ISBN 9781593750732
  • Wise, David, and Thomas B. Ross. 1962. The U-2 affair. New York: Random House.

External links