Eisenhower and the U-2 Spy Plane Incident

Francis Gary Powers, photographed in 1966, six years after he was shot down on a U-2 surveillance flight over the Soviet Union. The incident caused international tensions and was a great embarrassment to the Eisenhower Administration.

USAF Photograph

In the early 1950s, the United States was engaged in a Cold War with the Soviet Union. Since the Second World War, the two nations were in a technological arms race to advance their respective nations faster than their opponent. One such way that the U.S. did so was through aerial surveillance of the Soviet Union. In the 1950s, the current aircraft, the RB-47 and RB-57D, became vulnerable to Soviet surface-to-air missiles. The thinking was that if an aircraft could maintain a higher altitude, it could evade soviet detection and any possible attack via a surface-to-air missile. In complete secrecy, Kelly Johnson, an experienced aircraft designer, and Lockheed’s Skunk Works, soon to become Lockheed Martin, built the first prototype aircrafts.

Known as a U-2, this new aircraft was essentially a glider with a jet engine in the fuselage. The United States Air Force rejected the proposed design, but the design appealed to the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Allan Dulles, as well as 34^th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower recommended for the U-2 spy plane to be built and operated by the C.I.A. instead of the USAF. Funding for the program commenced, and construction began in 1954. Only 8 months after the contract started, the first test flight occurred in July of 1955. Missions began shortly thereafter. To help disguise its true purpose, the C.I.A. misled the public to believe that the craft was being operated by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and would be for high altitude weather research.

At first, U-2 aircraft only operated along the Soviet border. President Eisenhower was reluctant to send American pilots over the Soviet Union for fear of them being shot down. After several successful U-2 flights by British pilots, however, Eisenhower relented and allowed for American pilots to fly several missions preceding a planned summit with the Soviets in May 1960. While the United States believed that the aircraft, because of his high operating ceiling, could not be detected, the Soviets knew about the U-2 since it began operating, and were able to track it. The problem was the Soviets did not have a weapon that could intercept it, so development began on a surface to air missile that could intercept a United States U-2.

While Eisenhower had relented and allowed American pilots to fly U-2 missions, he specified the missions be flown by May 1, 1960, to leave sometime between them and the planned summit with the Soviets in Paris that same month. At the Summit, Eisenhower was slated meet with Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev, hoping to build off the goodwill from the Premier’s tour of America a year prior during which Khrushchev had visited Eisenhower’s Gettysburg farm. President Eisenhower also had received an offer from the Premier to take a tour of the Soviet Union to complement the tour of America.

The last U-2 flight before this May cutoff window would fly out of Pakistan, with plans to land in an airfield in Norway. The flight plan crossed almost 3,000 miles of the Soviet Union, with several inflight points to document key installations. The pilot selected was Francis Gary Powers. Powers was a Captain in the United States Air Force but was discharged in 1956. Subsequently, he joined the C.I.A as a civilian pilot for the U-2 program. Powers was an experienced pilot, having flown 27 missions to this point, and was the pilot for the first overflight of the Soviet Union from his operating base at Adena, Turkey.

Powers’ flight could not have happened at a worse time. His flight coincided with May Day, a large holiday for the Soviet Union, which led to a large decrease in air traffic. This allowed for the Soviets to seamlessly track Powers for the duration of his flight. Four and a half hours into his flight, a Soviet SA-2 surface to air missile detonated close to the U-2. At 70,000 feet Powers began to spiral and lose altitude in his aircraft. He prepared to eject, but his oxygen hose prevented his deployment. The hose broke after a few seconds and separated Powers from his doomed craft. His parachute automatically deployed, and he landed without injury on Soviet soil.

Powers did have a contingency in the form of a concealed needle with the poison Saxitoxin. If injected, this would have killed him and prevented his capture. Powers did not utilize this and was surrounded by Soviet citizens very soon after he touched down. Soviet citizens soon found his United States issued firearm, and other items bearing the flag of the U.S., turning him over to Soviet officials. Powers, and what was left of his spy plane, were shipped to Moscow be researched and documented. In a matter of hours, Khrushchev was informed of the captured pilot and the wrecked U-2.

When Powers was overdue to land at Norway, the C.I.A. started to consider what might have happened. As a result, their contingency plan went into action. To prevent the public and the Soviets from learning the true nature of the U-2 aircraft, a misinformation campaign began. A NASA press release stated one of their high-altitude weather research U-2 aircraft had gone missing over Turkey, and that it may have drifted into Soviet airspace because of an unconscious pilot. A U-2 was shown off in NASA colors as well to help sell the story. Khruschev learned of this story from the Americans and decided to lay a trap for the United States and for Eisenhower.

The Soviets released information that a spy plane was shot down but did not include any other information on the status of the aircraft or Powers. The U.S. believed it could shape the narrative further and kept releasing “reports” of oxygen difficulties in the aircraft and that the auto pilot may have sent the plane into Soviet territory. Once the deception from the United States grew large enough, on May 7th, Khruschev sprung his trap by stating the pilot was alive, and that the Soviets had captured the remains of the aircraft, which contained a camera and film of Soviet Military Installations. This destroyed the cover story and was a public embarrassment for the United States and for President Eisenhower. The President learned of this at the office of his Gettysburg residence, where he got a phone call informing him the Soviets had captured Powers. This shattered the peace and tranquility of his stay in Gettysburg, and he knew that he would be held responsible in the eyes of the Soviet Union. In a remark to an aide, Eisenhower reportedly said, “I would like to resign.” While Eisenhower did not resign, the U-2 incident and the accompanying embarassment of it, so close to the end of his second term, became a part of Eisenhower's Cold War legacy.

These Cold War tensions came to a head when Eisenhower met Khruschev at the Paris Summit on May 16^th, 1960. Khruschev demanded an apology from Eisenhower. The President stated that the overflights into Soviet territory had been suspended, and he would not make an apology. This exchange ended the summit and ended the possibility for President Eisenhower to visit the Soviet Union.

Powers, however, remained in Soviet custody. He was kept at the Committee for State Security, or KGB, headquarters in Moscow, and interrogated for several weeks, during which he did not release any classified intel, and mostly confirmed what the Soviets learned from the wreckage of his aircraft. He had a trial, largely for theatre, and apologized at the behest of his Soviet appointed defense counsel. He escaped the death penalty, and was sentenced to 10 years, three of which were to be in prison. He was moved to Vladimir Central Prison, where he was kept with other political inmates. He only served a year and three months before a prisoner trade was organized for Powers and American student Fredrick Prior in exchange for the return of Soviet Spy Rudolf Abel. The exchange took place at Glienecke Bridge, which crossed over the East and West German border.

Once Powers was returned to the U.S., he was debriefed and praised for not divulging any classified information. These sentiments were echoed by Congress during a hearing on the incident where Power’s testified on his experiences in the Soviet Union. Once he left the C.I.A. he returned to the USAF for some time, and then worked as a test pilot for Lockheed Martin, once again flying U-2 aircraft for several years. Though the experience he had over the USSR was in his mind, Powers felt at ease when he flew the aircraft he put so much of his life into. Leaving Lockheed Martin, he worked as a helicopter pilot for a Los Angeles based news outlet. He was killed in 1977 in a helicopter crash while documenting a wildfire.

American high altitude observation flights never entered Soviet airspace again. Instead, new aircraft were designed to be faster to outrun Soviet intercepts. Another Skunk Works aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird fulfilled those roles in 1966. Despite advances in technology, the U-2 spy plane was not mothballed and is still in use today in the United States Air Force and, officially, as NASA research aircraft. In 2023, these aircraft tracked a high-altitude Chinese balloon that passed over the continental United States, still capturing images and evidence over 60 years since the first flight in 1955. Today, the wreckage of Power’s aircraft remains at an aircraft museum in Moscow, Russia.