Cuban Missile Crisis: In the Shadow of Nuclear War. Schiffer Publishing, 2000.Polmar, Norman. The U-2 Spyplane: Toward the Unknown - A New History of the Early Years. Dragon Lady Today: The Continuing Story of the U-2 Spyplane. 50 Years of the U-2: The Complete Illustrated History of the Dragon Lady. The U-2 Spyplane: Toward the Unknown, A New History of the Early Years. U-2 Spy Plane Evades the Day of Retirement. A Look Back … Remembering the Cuban Missile Crisis. Over the course of the next 13 days, U-2 flights would keep President Kennedy abreast of Soviet activity in Cuba, buying the administration enough time to broker a deal with the Soviets: Russia would dismantle its weapons in Cuba in exchange for a pledge by the United States not to invade the island, pulling both sides from the brink of nuclear war. 14, 1962, revealing the Russians were capable of launching a nuclear strike against the U.S. It was a U-2 manned by Major Richard Heyser that captured photos of Soviet missile installations in western Cuba on Oct. intelligence agencies, especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The U-2, however, would continue to be a critical asset for U.S. Powers was sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet labor camp on August 17, 1960, but would be released two years later in exchange for spy Rudolph Abel. On May 1, 1960, a Soviet surface-to-air missile struck near a U-2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers, while on a reconnaissance mission over Russia. It was only a matter of time before advancing Russian anti-aircraft technology caught up with the spy plane. Thanks to the U-2, Eisenhower had the information he needed to avert a massive arms build-up - and a potential war. Its missiles, while numerous, were better suited for intermediate attacks against Europe than a long-range attack on the United States, with most being unready to fire at all. Russia’s ability to produce high-end bombers was unimpressive at best. U-2 flights revealed that the Soviets were more concerned with building tractors than tanks. The plane was tracked by Soviet radar, but Stockman’s U-2 flew beyond the reach of Soviet interceptors and anti-aircraft fire, returning home with history-altering intelligence.
On July 4, Hervey Stockman flew a U-2 from Wiesbaden, West Germany, deep into the heart of the Soviet Union, capturing detailed photos of airfields, factories and shipyards previously unattainable by other aircraft. He would get them through the Lockheed U-2 high altitude reconnaissance aircraft.īy early 1956, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had declared that his country was making “missiles like sausages” and that he would soon have a hydrogen bomb capable of striking “any point in the world.” Any uninvited guests flying over Russia, he also warned, would be shot down with impunity.īeginning in the summer of 1956, Lockheed’s U-2 would prove him wrong. President Dwight Eisenhower needed a new set of eyes in the sky. And when surveillance aircraft were sent to the edges of Russian airspace, they were often shot down by Soviet forces. The vast size of Soviet Union made it difficult to survey. Penetrating the Iron Curtain had proven far more challenging than U.S. The U.S., which had been allied with the Soviet Union during World War II, only to see it transform - literally overnight - into its fiercest Cold War enemy. Over the skies of Red Square in Moscow, the Soviet Union had just introduced its newest bomber - the Myasishchev M-4, ominously nicknamed “Hammer” - during a Russian May Day celebration.Ĭoming on the heels of the Soviet Union’s successful detonation of a hydrogen bomb the previous summer, the unveiling fueled a growing fear that Russia had not only eclipsed the West in terms of both nuclear weapons and bomber production, but was gearing up for a potential attack on the U.S.
On May 1, 1954, despite the breezy spring weather, leaders across Washington D.C.’s intelligence community found themselves breaking out in a cold, panicked sweat.
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