U-2 spy plance wreckage kept at Moscow.
In July 1957, the U.S. established a secret U.S. intelligence facility in Pakistan. It was in Badaber, 16 km from Peshawar. Badaber was an excellent choice because of its proximity to Soviet Union’s Central Asia republics. This enabled monitoring of missile test sites, launch pads and other communications during the tensed cold war periods.
On 9 April 1960, the U-2 spy plane of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) crossed the South national boundary of Soviet Union in the area of Pamir Mountains and flew over four Soviet top secret military locations: the Semipalatinsk Test Site, the Tu-95 air base, the Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) test site of the Soviet Air Defense Forces near Saryshagan, and the Tyuratam missile range. The Soviet Air Defense Forces detected the plane at 04:47hrs when it flew away by more than 250 km from the Soviet national boundary and avoided several attempts of interception using MiG-19 and Su-9 during the flight. After U-2 left the Soviet air space, it was clear that U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had successfully performed an extraordinary intelligence operation. Soviets knew that their anti-aircraft systems weren’t effective. However, next time the Soviets hit back! Perhaps, in the best way possible.
Gary Powers undergoes trial in the Soviet Union.
The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on May 1, 1960 when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. At first, the United States government denied the plane's purpose and mission, but later it was forced to admit its role when the Soviet government produced the plane remains, photographs and the surviving pilot Gary Powers. The incident happened before two weeks of the scheduled opening of an East-West summit. The incident was a great embarrassment to the United States and prompted a marked deterioration in its relations with the Soviet Union. Eisenhower refused to apologize and Nikita Khrushchev, the then General Secretary of the USSR, boycotted the East-West summit.
What really happened?
On May 1, 1960, thirteen days before the scheduled opening of an East–West summit conference in Paris, a U.S. Lockheed U-2 spy plane left US base in Badaber on a mission to over fly the Soviet Union to photograph ICBM sites.
The Soviet missile system was not yet up to the mark! Fighter planes like MiG-19’s and Su-9’s were sent to intercept the aircraft. According to the reports, it is believed that the missile fired from a SAM (Surface to Air Missile) hit the spy plane first and it also destroyed a Soviet interceptor plane in the missile salvo. Due to secret policy of the Soviet Union, many such incidents and details still remain a mystery and still unanswered. The pilot Gary Powers was captured by the Soviets.
Four days after Powers disappeared, NASA issued a very detailed press release stating that an aircraft had "gone missing" north of Turkey. The press release speculated that the pilot might have fallen unconscious while the autopilot was still engaged, even falsely claiming that "the pilot reported over the emergency frequency that he was experiencing oxygen difficulties."
Nikita Khruschev inspects the wreckage.
Then the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev said that a "spy plane" had been shot down but intentionally made no reference to the pilot. As a result, the Eisenhower Administration, thinking the pilot had died in the crash, authorized the release of a cover story claiming that the plane was a "weather research aircraft" which had strayed into Soviet airspace. The White House gracefully acknowledged that this might be the same plane, but still proclaimed that "there was absolutely no deliberate attempt to violate Soviet airspace and never has been" and attempted to continue the facade by grounding all U-2 aircraft to check for "oxygen problems."
Newspapers in the 1960's describing the U-2 incident.
On May 7, Khrushchev sprang his trap and announced, ” I must tell you a secret. When I made my first report I deliberately did not say that the pilot was alive and well and now just look how many silly things [the Americans] are said.
Powers was actually still alive; unfortunately his plane was also essentially intact. The Soviets managed to recover the surveillance camera and even developed some of the photographs. Those photographs were taken over the USSR during the espionage mission. Powers’ survival pack, including 7500 rubles, jewels were recovered.
The SA-2 type missile used by the Soviet Union to shoot the aircraft.
The Paris Summit between president Dwight Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev collapsed in large part and the Cold War continued. Khrushchev left the talks on May 16. Powers pleaded guilty and was convicted of espionage. The incident severely compromised Pakistan security and worsened relations between the Soviet Union and Pakistan. Pakistani General Khalid Mahmood Arif while commenting on the incident stated that, "Pakistan felt deceived because the US had kept her in the dark about such clandestine spy operations launched from Pakistan’s territory." As Soviet Union launched satellites and designed missiles, cold war tensions also grew proportionately.
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