United States Spy Plane Shot Down
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May 1, 1960, a United States U-2 Airforce spy aircraft flying over the Soviet Union at 60,000 feet while conducting a "secret" reconnaissance flight was shot down over Sverdlovsk in central USSR. The shoot down of the U-2 was on the eve of a summit meeting between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. As a result of the shoot down and sensationalism in the media, it brought about the cancellation of the meeting and heightened Cold War tensions. Photographs brought back by the U-2 indicated that Soviet technology was considerably further advanced than had been thought at the time, but they also showed that the Soviets weren't building and deploying large numbers of weapons. This is exactly what Premier Khrushchev wanted Eisenhower to see. |
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While these flights were a secret to most Americans, they were not a secret to the Soviets. The United States had been sending aircraft on reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union for a number of years and on several occasions Soviet Interceptors had engaged them. The pilot of the U-2 aircraft, Francis Gary Powers was said to have been a CIA agent. Powers survived the crash, was tried and convicted and was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Moscow court. Two years later Powers was released to America in exchange for an imprisoned Soviet spy.
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