The U-2 Incident By Samantha Raymond and Dan OConnell Period 4.

The U-2 IncidentBy Samantha Raymond and Dan O’Connell

Period 4

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 90,000 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

Nervous About 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

Khrushchev denounced Eisenhower at the summit then immediately left

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

U.S. policies – Cuba and Vietnam

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