The cold war continued to wage on between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. This caused the massive upheaval of distrust against the U.S. after the spy plane was shot down. Also the U.S. was sending their first troops to fight in Vietnam. Dwight D. Eisenhower and as President he signed the Civil Rights Bill, Federal Highway Act, and also ended the Korean War. This was during the 1960s, which was the era of counterculture, peace riots, and suburbanism, as well as a time of fear because of the Cold War tensions with the U.S.S.R and the formation of nuclear weapons.
Background of U-2 Incident On May 1st 1960, a U.S. U-2 Spy Plane was shot down over Sverdlovsk, U.S.S.R. The pilot of this plane, Francis Gary Powers was captured, interrogated and sent to court in Moscow. Originally President Eisenhower wasn't aware that Francis had been captured, so he tried to hide the information from Russian authorities however he was exposed in Francis's interview and had to admit to the Soviet's that the CIA had been flying spy missions over the U.S.S.R. for multiple years. Francis Powers was then convicted to 10 years in prison, but then was released after only 2 in a spy swap. Narrative-
This document is proof of President Eisenhower's cover plan.
This was the pilot of the U-2 Spy Plane, Francis Gary Powers.
Essential Questions 1. Do you think it was necessary for the U.S. to spy on the Soviet Union with the U2 Plane? Yes it was necessary because for years it was successful and helped us gain inside information for the U.S.
2. How was the U.S.S.R. unable to discover that American Spy Planes had flown over it for several years? Does this highlight American military and technological superiority? The U.S. had ways to block their spy technology from being tracked by the U.S.S.R. detectors. Yes, because it shows that the U.S was more technologically advanced than the U.S.S.R. suspected
3. How do you think Americans and Soviets viewed the capture of Francis Powers? I think Americans viewed the capture as a shock since originally they assumed he was just dead since Eisenhower came up with the cover plan. The Soviets viewed the capture as a victory and used it as leverage against the U.S. government to gain information.
This is a museum artifact of some of the items recovered from the U2 Spy Incident