The U-2 Incident

By Zouhair El Berdai
What was the U-2 incident?
 May 1, 1960 – The United States sent a U-2 plane, to fly
over the Soviet Union, to take infrared pictures of the
USSR. The flight was issued by the CIA
 Francis Gary Powers was the pilot
 The plane was shot down by the USSR
 Before the incident…
 The United States had been sending many of these planes to
fly over the Soviet Union because they were afraid the
Soviets might be preparing for war
 The Soviets knew that these planes were flying overhead
since 1958
 The U-2 Planes
 Were made to fly above 70,000 feet, so they could be
undetected by the Soviets
 The U-2 planes were designed with cameras that took
infrared pictures of the Soviets’ military installations
 About the Program (1960)
 The secret of the program was now known by some people
of the American press
 The Soviet Union had been aware of the flights for two
years
 Eisenhower wanted to stop the flights, but his secretary of
state, John Dulles, wanted him to okay one last flight
 Francis Gary Powers
 The pilot of the last flight of the
U-2 planes that was shot down
by the Soviet Union
 Lived the crash
 Sentenced to prison for three
years and then an extra seven
years of labor by the Soviet
Union
 Released after 17 months
 Failed to activate self destruct
in the plane
 Soviets gathered information
from the plane
 The United States Lies
 The U.S. tries to explain to the
Soviet Union that the plane was
not meant to fly over the USSR.
It lost its course on a weather
mission.
 Khrushchev, leader of the
Soviet Union, announced that
the plane was brought down by
one of his rockets and the pilot
was captured and confessed
 1996 – proved to be a lie to
make their weapons seem
more advanced
 USSR vs. US
 Khrushchev was angered because it made him look bad
 His people thought that he couldn’t negotiate with the United
States
 Eisenhower refused to apologize = no summit conference
 End Cold War
 Eisenhower was no longer the peacemaker
 Effect
 More tension between the Soviet Union and United States
 Every peacemaking attempt had fallen short
 Cold War would go on for about another decade because the
summit conference did not take place
 Work Cited
"1960 U-2 incident -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 04 Feb. 2010.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

1960_U-2_incident>.Danzer, Gerald A. The Americans. Evanston: McDougal Littell, 2002. Print.

"Francis Gary Powers -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 04 Feb. 2010.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Gary_Powers>.

"U-2 Incident, 1960." Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts. Web. 04 Feb. 2010.
<http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/u2.htm>.

"U-2 Spy plane Incident - Gary Powers." American History From About. Web. 04 Feb. 2010.
<http://americanhistory.about.com/od/coldwar/a/gary_powers.htm>.

http://oneworldnews.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/u2main.jpg

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/khrushchev_shoe1.jpg