About the U-2 Incident

In the middle of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, a US U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union, causing an embarrassing scandal for the United States and hurting relations between the two countries.

History

Throughout the 1950's, the United States was gravely concerned about the Soviet Union, and was anxious to keep a close eye on the Soviet military and the capabilities that they held. In 1957, President Eisenhower, with the help of the Pakistani government, set up a secret intelligence facility in northwestern Pakistan to monitor the Soviets. Proximity was key in intelligence gathering because there were no satellites to survey other countries in the 1950's.

On April 9, 1960, the United States' Central Intelligence Agency grew a bit bolder in their surveillance and decided to fly one of their "U-2" spy planes into Soviet territory and take photos of secret Soviet military installations, including air bases and missile test sites. The information gained from this flight was incredibly valuable, but the missions were extremely illegal and dangerous.

The Soviets had spotted the plane as it flew over their airspace, but the United States officially denied sending spy planes over the Soviet Union, and without any physical proof, there was nothing the Soviet Union could do.

History

The CIA tried to send another plane through Soviet airspace on May 1, 1960, but this time, the Soviet Union was more prepared. The Soviet Air Force was put on high alert with instructions to take down any foreign planes they saw.

The US plane, flown by pilot Gary Powers, was able to evade the Soviets for a time. Because it was just a spy plane, it had the capability to fly higher than most fighter jets, and his flight path had been strategically designed to avoid the range of many Soviet missile installations. Powers's luck ran out as he was hit near a highly sensitive Soviet nuclear reactor site. Powers was hit with a number of surface-to-air missiles, and he was forced to bail out of his plane.

Effects

In the aftermath of the plane being shot down, the United States tried to do as much damage control as possible to avoid causing an escalation that would lead to World War III. NASA sent out a press release stating that one of their pilots had gone missing north of Turkey.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev then announced that a US spyplane had been shot down over the USSR, but was careful not to mention that the pilot, Gary Powers, had survived the crash. The United States incorrectly assumed that Powers had died when the plane was shot down. Powers had been given a suicide pill and instructions to destroy his plane before being shot down, so without word from him, the Americans figured he was no longer alive. Still trying to control the damage, President Eisenhower claimed that the U-2 plane was actually just a weather research plane, and that the pilot had become disoriented and gotten lost due to oxygen difficulties on the plane.

After hearing the United States make more false claims, Khrushchev then released to the world that the pilot had survived being shot down, and that many items from the plane, including his spy cameras and survival pack, had been recovered. It was indisputable evidence that the U-2 was flying over the USSR for intelligence purposes and that the US had intentionally tried to cover it up.

Significance

The timing of the event was particularly bad because Eisenhower and Kruschchev were scheduled to meet together in Paris just days after the incident. Talks officially ended when President Eisenhower refused to apologize for sending spy planes into Russia.

A week later, the US and USSR met at the United Nations Security Council to try and resolve the dispute. The result of the talks were a failure for the Soviet Union, as the Security Council voted against giving the United States even a written reprimand condemning the spy missions.

Gary Powers was sentenced to 10 years in Soviet prison after being convicted for espionage. He served just full two years of his sentence, and then he was traded for a Soviet spy in 1962.

Effects

The U-2 incident was embarrassing for the United States, and could have sparked an escalation in the Cold War, but ultimately, the US suffered no real consequences for their actions.

While the world may have recognized that the United States wasn't operating in an honest matter, they still held a high standing in the world, while there was a growing distrust of the Soviets in the international community. If anything, this incident shows the advantages to having a true coalition of international support on your side when fighting a dangerous enemy.