The U-2 Incident: How a Spy Plane Shattered a Fragile Cold War Peace

In May 1960, with a Four Powers peace summit weeks away, an American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union. This episode traces how that single flight and the cover-up that followed destroyed a rare window for arms reduction and accelerated the most dangerous phase of the Cold War. We start with Khrushchev's diplomatic trap and the American weather-plane lie.We explain the physics of the U-2's coffin-corner flight at 70,000 feet, why it was believed untouchable, and how the new S-75 surface-to-air missile with a proximity fuse brought it down. We cover Powers's harrowing bailout, the friendly-fire death of a Soviet pilot caused by an IFF code failure on May Day, and Eisenhower's decision to own the espionage program rather than accept Khrushchev's offered scapegoat.Why Eisenhower authorized the flight despite the diplomatic riskThe collapse of the cover story and the bipartisan applause in CongressThe doomed Paris summit and shockwaves reaching Pakistan and JapanThe Bridge of Spies exchange and the alternative theories about what downed the planeHow removing the human element led to spy satellites and laid groundwork for drone warfare