Francis Gary Powers and the U-2: A Poison Coin and a Wrecked Paris Summit

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In the late 1950s the United States had little reliable intelligence on Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles, so the CIA flew U-2 spy planes from a base near Peshawar, Pakistan, presented publicly as a communications station. The U-2, essentially a powered glider, cruised near 70,000 feet, where Soviet fighters stalled or flamed out. Dwight D. Eisenhower feared a captured American pilot and first wanted Royal Air Force pilots under Project Oldster, but the CIA insisted on its own. Ahead of a May 1960 East-West summit in Paris, he approved two final flights. On May 1, 1960, Francis Gary Powers took off in Article 360 on Operation Grand Slam, a route from Pakistan to Norway over missile sites and the Chelyabinsk-65 plutonium plant. Near the Urals an S-75 Dvina missile's proximity fuse shredded the plane, and Powers broke his oxygen hose to bail out, choosing not to use a saxitoxin pin hidden in a hollow silver dollar.

Washington, assuming Powers was dead, claimed a NASA weather plane had strayed after oxygen trouble and painted a U-2 with fake NASA markings for the press. Nikita Khrushchev announced the shootdown without mentioning the pilot, then revealed on May 7 that Powers was alive along with his cameras, film and poison coin. Eisenhower took personal responsibility, refused to apologize, and the Paris summit collapsed within hours. Powers pleaded guilty at a Soviet show trial and received 10 years, then in February 1962 was traded for Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel on the Glienicke Bridge.

• Soviet pilot Sergei Safronov was killed by his own side's missile because fighter squadrons had not updated their friend or foe codes during the May Day shift change.
• Khrushchev suggested the CIA and Allen Dulles had gone rogue, giving Eisenhower an off ramp he declined.
• The Soviet Union threatened Pakistan with retaliatory nuclear strikes for hosting the U-2 base.
• Revelations of U-2s in Japan fueled protests that canceled an Eisenhower visit and led to the Japanese prime minister's resignation.
• In prison Powers spent much of his time making rugs and envelopes.