Francis Gary Powers Research Paper

One of the pinnacle moments in the history of the entire Cold War was the notorious U-2 Incident that occurred on May 1, 1960. This event completely reversed the efforts of cooperation between the United States and the USSR. The pilot of the U-2 aircraft, Francis Gary Powers, did not follow procedure after he was shot down in Soviet airspace. Powers was supposed to commit suicide, if he was not killed in the initial crash, which he did not do. He was tried for espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison in the Soviet Union. Rudolf Abel was a Soviet spy caught in the United States and he was being sentenced for espionage as well. The two countries agreed to have a prisoner exchange, Rudolf Abel for Francis Powers, this was a unique situation at the time. The interpretation of this event has had some changes throughout the years, but not anything drastic from its original interpretation. This event is recent in history so views have not completely re-interpreted the events significance. There have been multiple changes that have still been made in its interpretation. Originally Francis Gary Powers was viewed as a coward for his actions, but later was treated as a hero. At first this event was shown as a huge failure for the United States. It was believed that it stopped cooperation between the …show more content…
Some wonder why the event happened at a time when détente was still a possibility. It happened a little more than two weeks before the Paris Summit that would have been on May 16, 1960. This Summit held high hopes for many to put an end to the war. Even though the Soviets were aware these flights were taking place, they did not know the reason for them until Francis Gary Powers was captured. This type of questioning was not widespread at the time of the event. The reasons for the event itself was not being questioned, but rather trying to be resolved by the two feuding