My Journey on Lincoln's Assassination

[L Verge]

(01-23-2019 12:10 PM)mike86002000 Wrote:  As for the Gary Powers U-2 spy plane mission, I remember it. I've also read about it extensively, including "Operation Overflight", by Gary Powers, himself. Although I think we are getting pretty far afield on a Lincoln assassination forum, the version of the story I remember varies so much from yours, that I must respond.
The incident caused the cancellation of important talks that were scheduled between Eisenhower and Khrushchev, and the Cold War continued for more than another 20 years.
Powers wrote that a near miss by a "SAM", a ground to air missile, blew up behind the U-2. It broke up, and he was out of position to eject from the spinning cockpit. As I remember, he also wrote that the Soviets were able to shoot him down by flying interceptors with a visual sighting on the U-2, on the same course, at a lower altitude. The SAMs' controlling radar tracked on the interceptors, and war heads were set to go off at the U-2's altitude. He said he saw a Soviet parachute coming down with him, and thought they shot down one of their own planes in the process of bringing him down.
Powers thought the Soviets may have gotten information about the U-2's operational altitude from none other than Lee Harvey Oswald, who could very well have had it from his work in the Marines. When he defected to the Soviet Union, he said he would give them important information.
The plane was equipped with a destruction device, controlled by a timer, that was supposed to blow the plane up after the pilot ejected. During the prefight checks, the timer failed tests. It would have blown up the plane before the pilot could get clear, if he used the ejector seat. The defective timer was replaced with one directly from the shop. Testing it in the plane would have delayed the flight, so Powers didn't. I doubt he trusted it, either.
When he was taken into custody by the Soviets, Powers had a poison pin, concealed in a coin, he had been issued, in a pocket of his flight suit. The Soviets displayed it as "spy gear".
Powers died in the crash of the "traffic 'copter" he was flying when it ran out of gas. I'm told his family find that suspicious.
Mike

Thanks for filling in the blanks, Mike, but I don't see that my version and your version vary all that much. However, I have never read Powers's own version, only that of his son and various other snippets along the way. I do remember Khrushchev being very upset that Eisenhower would not apologize. However, the Cold War had so many other facets for so long that I still would not count Powers's failed mission as a key component - only one that got a lot of press.

https://history.state.gov/milestones/195...2-incident
http://www.americanheritage.com/content/...ary-powers