Fifty seven years ago, the United States of America was at war with the Soviet Union.
But before you say, “No, there wasn’t a war going on then,” perhaps you should go back and check your history books. There was a war going on between the two big kids on the world block and that war was one of political and social ideologies. After the events of May 1, 1960, the world teetered on the brink of that ideological war escalating into an even larger confrontation between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
If you are not familiar with the U-2 Incident involving Francis Gary Powers, then you should acquaint or reacquaint yourself with the events that almost took both countries to the brink of war and forced a heroic, former general now president, Dwight D. Eisenhower to have to come clean on the nature of the Powers’ ill fated U-2 flight over the Soviet Union during the tense three months following the shootdown.
The incident also introduced the world to the fiery outbursts and rhetoric of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and put rural Southwestern Virginia, Powers and his family into the international spotlight after his capture.
Recently, Midlothian resident Francis Gary Powers Jr. was in Pound, Virginia, the hometown of his father, Francis Gary Powers, for Pound Heritage Days to promote his new book, “Letters from a Soviet Prison – The Personal Journal and Correspondence of CIA U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers.”
The junior Powers travels to promote his father’s legacy and discuss the Cold War on a frequent basis to groups and also makes presentations discussing his father’s role and the impact of the famed U-2 Incident.
There has been a recent resurgence in interest with the topic of the U-2 Incident with the Steven Spielberg movie, “Bridge of Spies,” starring Tom Hanks, as the movie dealt with the arrest and incarceration of Soviet Col. Rudolf Abel and the eventual prisoner exchange between Abel and the famed U-2 pilot, tried and convicted for espionage.
Powers also has a small part in the movie and can be seen walking out of a hangar beside the actor who portrays his father in the film.
The book is limited release of 500 copies and co-authored by Douglas E. Campbell with a preface from Professor Sergei Khrushchev, the son of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
Orders for “Letters from a Soviet Prison” can be made by contacting Powers at [email protected] or by going to Powers’ website at www.garypowers.com.
Other books available from the website include Powers’ father’s own account of the U-2 Incident, entitled, “Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident” and “Strangers on a Bridge” by James Donovan, the lawyer who helped negotiate the exchange between Abel and Powers.
Story by Rod Mullins/Augusta Free Press
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