The U-2 Incident: The Cold War at Its Coldest
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On 1 May 1960, Soviet air defenses shot down an American U-2 spy plane. The aircraft was flying from the US airbase in Peshawar, Pakistan, to Bodø, Norway, when it was shot down over the heart of the Soviet Union. The pilot, CIA operative Francis Gary Powers, managed to eject and parachute to safety but was captured by the Soviet Union. The incident became one of the most serious diplomatic crises of the Cold War. It occurred just a few weeks before the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and Britain were due to meet for a summit in Paris, where Berlin, disarmament, and relations between Eastern and Western Europe were to be discussed.
Why did the US fly the U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union?
In the 1950s, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were marked by deep mistrust. Two opposing ideologies stood against each other: American capitalism versus Soviet communism. The Americans feared that the Soviet Union had developed more nuclear weapons and long-range bombers than the US. This was before the age of satellites, making it difficult to gather reliable information on Soviet military installations. The US therefore developed the Lockheed U-2 spy plane.
The U-2 could fly at altitudes of over 20,000 meters. The aircraft had a long range and was equipped with advanced cameras capable of photographing military installations. Initially, it was nearly impossible for Soviet fighter jets to reach the plane, making the U-2 the perfect aircraft for American espionage. Starting in 1956, the CIA carried out secret flights over the Soviet Union. Soviet radar could often detect the planes, but shooting them down proved difficult.
What happened on 1 May 1960?
On the morning of 1 May, Francis Gary Powers took off from a US-operated airbase near Peshawar, Pakistan. His mission was to fly over large parts of the Soviet Union, photograph military installations, and then land in Bodø, Norway. The U-2’s flight proceeded smoothly until it reached Sverdlovsk, present-day Yekaterinburg. The Soviet air defenses, however, were prepared. In the heart of the Soviet Union, the aircraft was attacked with Soviet S-75 surface-to-air missiles.
Francis Gary Powers managed to escape the aircraft and parachuted to the ground, where he was captured by the Soviets. In the hours that followed, the US issued a major cover story. When the plane disappeared, NASA claimed that an American research aircraft had gone off course during a weather research mission. At the time, the Americans likely believed the pilot was dead and the plane completely destroyed. By this point, the Soviet Union had announced that a plane had been shot down, but had not revealed that the pilot had been captured.
The US continued to insist that the plane had been on a research mission. Then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that the pilot had been captured and that parts of the aircraft, along with the spy equipment, were intact. The US was eventually forced to admit that it had been using aircraft for intelligence-gathering over the Soviet Union. This turned into a major propaganda victory for Nikita Khrushchev.
The U-2 incident overshadowed the summit
On 16 May 1960, the Paris Summit was held. Khrushchev demanded that Eisenhower apologize for the spy flights, condemn them, and guarantee they would not continue. US President Dwight D. Eisenhower stated that the flights over the Soviet Union had been halted but refused to issue a formal apology.
For Nikita Khrushchev, this was not enough. He withdrew from further negotiations, causing the talks to collapse.
The consequences
The U-2 affair had several consequences, both immediate and long-term.
Trust between the superpowers was weakened. Khrushchev could use the incident as proof that the US was engaging in hostile activity while at the same time speaking of peace and détente.
Important negotiations were postponed. The prospects for progress on a nuclear test ban, disarmament, and the Berlin question were diminished. Eisenhower’s planned visit to the Soviet Union was also canceled.
The incident boosted Soviet propaganda. The US had indeed violated Soviet airspace and tried to cover it up with a false explanation, giving the Soviet Union concrete evidence to point to.
Espionage methods changed. The US ended manned U-2 overflights deep into Soviet territory and increasingly relied on reconnaissance satellites instead.
Pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the Soviet Union for espionage. In 1962, he was released as part of a prisoner exchange between the US and the Soviet Union.
The consequences for Norway
Since Francis Gary Powers was meant to land the U-2 in the Norwegian city of Bodø, Norway was directly implicated in the incident. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev issued a sharp warning, threatening to deploy nuclear missiles against Bodø if Norway allowed such spy missions to be repeated. Norway came under intense diplomatic and political pressure to sever its security ties with the US and withdraw from NATO.
Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen and Foreign Minister Halvard Lange initially denied any knowledge of the spy missions, claiming that the US had only been granted permission to use Bodø in accordance with international rules, while official Norwegian protests were lodged with the United States.
Sources:
Office of the Historian: Despatch From the Embassy in Norway to the Department of State
Office of the Historian: U-2 Overflights and the Capture of Francis Gary Powers, 1960