In memory of Lt by German

Author:German [German]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2011-12-30T23:42:45+00:00

pressure on the National Security Council to cut off the U2 overnights completely. The old general knew it was just a matter of time before the Soviets would capture a living American pilot, extract his confession, and march him in front of the television cameras to the humiliation of the United States. Eisenhower was a man of his word who disliked politicians because they always sought the expedient solution, not the most honorable one. Eisenhower disliked expedience for expediency's sake and always preferred to take the most directly honest path whenever he could. But, as Khrushchev complained about the U2 flights, Ike always denied we were sending them. It was such an obvious lie that Khrushchev kept goading Eisenhower about exposing himself that way. "We will shoot one of them down, you'l see, " he kept telling Eisenhower whenever he complained. "Then what wil you say?"

But President Eisenhower denied the existence of the U2, putdown the telephone, and turned on his own staff, furious that they had put him into such an untenable situation. "Stop the nights, " he ordered. But the CIA kept pushing for one more flight. It was serving a purpose, they argued. They were learning about the Russian air defense system at the same time they were surveil ing possible areas of alien spacecraft activity. With or without the Russians' knowledge, the U2s denied the extraterrestrials a complete camouflage because of our high resolution aerial surveillance. I don't know whether we actually found any evidence of an alien landing on Russian territory from our U2 surveillance, but the extraterrestrials certainly could see that we were able to surveil the Soviet Union, and their knowledge of our capability served as a deterrent to roaming the vast areas of the Soviet Union with impunity.

The CIA claimed the U2s were so important to our national security that they were even ready to sacrifice one of their own pilots. However, I also believe that the KGB moles who had penetrated them wanted Eisenhower to be embarrassed before the entire world. And when Francis Gary Powers took off in May 1960, they had their chance.

There is stil a great deal of doubt about the shootdown of Powers's U2. His mission was to fly over the most sensitive Soviet missile installations and make himself a target. We believed the Russian SAMs couldn't reach his altitude. But, whether Powers fell asleep at the stick because of oxygen deprivation or whether his CIA controllers forced him to a lower altitude to get better photos or even to make himself a more provocative target, we'l never know. I believe that Powers was probably startled out of a low oxygen lethargy by the explosion of a SAM

close enough to force him to lose control. His plane was not hit by the missile. The U2 was the type of aircraft that was very difficult to fly. Powers probably pulled into a stall and was unable to bring it back. As his plane spun toward the ground and

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