May 1, 1960

The mystery of Gary Powers and the U-2 Incident

"Following World War II, the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union grew increasingly wary. The USSR did not agree to a U.S. 'Open Skies' proposal in 1955 and relations continued to deteriorate. The U.S. instituted high altitude reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union because of this aura of mistrust. The U-2 was the plane of choice for the spying missions. The CIA took the lead, keeping the military out of the picture to avoid any possibilities of open conflict. By 1960, the U.S. had flown numerous 'successful' missions over and around the U.S.S.R. However, a major incident was about to occur. On May 1, 1960, a U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was brought down near Svedlovsk, Soviet Union. This event had a lasting negative impact on U.S. - U.S.S.R. relations. The details surrounding this event are to this day still shrouded in mystery."

The following is excerpted from the book, "Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy" by Jim Marrs:

"Both [Nikita] Khrushchev and his Western counterpart, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, seemed sincere in wanting to ease the tensions between their two countries. In the summer of 1959, Khrushchev visited the United States. Newsweek described the results:

After two private days with Eisenhower at Camp David, Khrushchev lifted an ultimatum on Berlin, announced that the President had "captivated" him and praised [Eisenhower's] wisdom and love of peace in terms no cold-war Soviet leader has used either before or since. The stage was set for a full-fledged negotiation at the summit in Paris.

This summit, scheduled for mid-May 1960, might have produced a limited nuclear-test-ban treaty, already foreseen as the first major accord of the cold war.

But it was not to be. On May 1, traditionally celebrated in Russia as May Day, CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers was captured alive after his U-2 spy plane crashed in the Soviet Union following an explosion.

Khrushchev was furious, yet he tried to give Eisenhower latitude in disclaiming any knowledge of the incident. He stated that the U-2 flight may have been the work of "American aggressive circles" trying to "torpedo the Paris summit, or, at any rate, prevent an agreement for which the whole world is waiting."

After days of half-truths and evasions, Eisenhower finally admitted that the spy plane was acting on his orders and took responsibility for the fiasco....

However, questions still surround the U-2 incident, and some students of history such as David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace in The People's Almanac note: "It is possible that certain U.S. military leaders deployed Powers purposely to sabotage the peace talks which Eisenhower himself acutely desired."

Colonel Fletcher Prouty, who served as focal point officer between the CIA and the Air Force...told author Anthony Summers: "The Russians simply had nothing that could touch a plane flying that high." Prouty concluded that, based on his interpretation of U-2 technical evidence, Power's plane was flying below its operational altitude when brought down.

Some people familiar with the U-2 incident believe the plane may have been downed due to sabotage. In 1977, Powers told a radio audience that he believed his U-2 had been brought down by a bomb placed on board. Shortly after making this statement, he was killed when his helicopter, used to report news for a Los Angeles television station, ran out of gas and crashed."