18. The U2 Crisis

Question 1

Who was Gary powers?

Answer 1

A US pilot whose mission was to collect military intelligence for the CIA by taking photographs of soviet bases

Question 2

When did powers take of on a U2 plane?

Answer 2

1st May 1960 from a US air base in Pakistan

Question 3

What happened to powers?

Answer 3

Was shot down near Sverdlovsk over the Ural Mountains and he ejected from his plain and was captured by the soviets on the ground

Question 4

What was significant about the day the U2 got shot down?

Answer 4

It was 13 days before the 1st major summit between the SU and the us since Potsdam

Question 5

How does the U2 affairs link back to the arms race?

Answer 5

As America thought the SU was much more advanced in their nuclear weapons

Question 6

How did the USA respond to the U2 crisis?

Answer 6

• Eisenhower accepted the U2 was a spy plane but he refused to apologise or say it wouldn’t happen again
• Americans claimed the U2 plans was getting weather data and had accidentally strayed into soviet territory

Question 7

What was the soviets action against the U2 crisis

Answer 7

• soviets found a camera and a suicide pill proving the U2 wasn’t a weather plane
• Khrushchev was angry at the lack of apology and refused to continue the Paris Peace Summit
• the soviets paraded Powers of soviet TV and put him on trial as a spy
• Eisenhower was no longer welcome to visit the SU which was due on June 1960
• Khrushchev demanded an apology and a promise they wouldn’t fly into soviet air space without permission

Question 8

What were the U2 spy planes?

Answer 8

The USA’s most effective method of gathering intelligence. They flew at 23,000 meters and could photograph weapons development without detection