U-2 Crisis: Escalating Tensions During The Cold War

U-2 Crisis: Escalating Tensions in the Cold War During the Cold War, two countries, the United States (US) and Russia had a meeting in Paris to deal with global problems. These two countries had a bad alliance, but for the sake of dealing with worldwide issues, they tried to be better acquaintances. Unfortunately, on May 1, 1960, the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane, known as the U-2 Crisis. Ultimately, the U-2 Crisis worsened the relationship between the United States and Russia, as it escalated the intensity of the Cold War. This crisis ended the idea of these two countries working together and even trying to behold a friendship.
May of 1960, was a new time of hope and that world tensions were easing. Leaders of the great worlds …show more content…
American Intelligence only knew that Francis Powers and the U-2 plane had not achieved the flight to Norway ( Cook, 1973). The mystery crash was for the United States to respond, so they decided to come up with a “cover story”. The cover story was America had lost a weather plane. On May 2 a public information officer at the air force base in Turkey made an announcement ( Cook, 1973). “It said that a U-2 weather plane had vanished while on routine” ( Cook, 1973, p. 31). The rest of the story was the pilot had difficulties with the oxygen mask, blacked out, and been killed in the crash.
Embarrassment reached ultimate proportions for the US. In Moscow, Khrushchev showed information from the plane crash proving that the US had a false story ( Cook, 1973). Khrushchev said, “We have parts of the plane and we also have the pilot, who is alive and kicking” ( Cook, 1973, p. 35). The Soviet leader showed several photos of parts from the crash that have been saved from the plane. Powers even confessed to everything that happened after he had been shot …show more content…
The U-2 case had a main contractor by the name of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. The corporation is located in Burbank, California. The firm is very thankful to have a great engineer to design these planes by the name of C.L. (Kelly) Johnson ( Cook, 1973). Johnson invented the U-2 spy plane and handmade by Lockheed. “The U-2 was a combination of a glider and airplane, had a stubby body that is 40 feet long, huge batlike wings that stretched a full 80 feet long” ( Cook, 1973, p. 9). The U-2 plane was made to be light as a feather, where as a original plane has extra support such as joints and parts the U-2 plane does