Spy Pilot: Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy

One of the most famous events of the Cold War was the downing of the American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960, which was depicted in the Steven Spielberg movie Bridge of Spies. Powers was captured by the KGB, subjected to a televised show trial, and imprisoned, all of which created an international incident. Soviet authorities eventually released him in exchange for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. On his return to the United States, Powers was exonerated of any wrongdoing while imprisoned in Russia, yet, due to bad press and the government’s unwillingness to heartily defend Powers, a cloud of controversy lingered until his untimely death in 1977. Now his son, Francis Gary Powers Jr. and acclaimed historian Keith Dunnavant have written this new account of Powers’s life based on personal files that had never been previously available. Delving into old audio tapes, letters his father wrote and received while imprisoned in the Soviet Union, CIA transcripts, recently declassified documents, and first-person interviews, Powers and Dunnavant set the record straight. The result is a fascinating piece of Cold War history. This is also a book about a son’s journey to understand his father, pursuing justice and a measure of peace. Almost sixty years after the fact, this is the definitive account of one of the most important events of the Cold War.