ONE MYSTERY CLEARED UP
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP75-00001R000400080017-8
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
1
Document Creation Date:
November 17, 2016
Document Release Date:
November 8, 1999
Sequence Number:
17
Case Number:
Publication Date:
November 6, 1962
Content Type:
NSPR
File:
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
![]() | 44.74 KB |
Body:
Approved For-Release
2000/08/03 : CI
NOV 6 1962
25X1A
:1Y~ 1 , 11'3
One Mystery Cmmred Up
nr+nember Francis Gary Powers, the for-
mes- U.S. Air Force lieutenant whose cup-'
turn by Russia on May 1, 1960, brought
the tl2 airplane into the news and blasted
a l'aris conference into oblivion when Pre-
rider Khrushchev refused to have an3r fur-
ther dealings with President Eisenhower.
The mys" about Powers was what hap-
pened to his plane. The obvious sure ise
was that it had been shot out of the air
by the Russians. A Russian government
spokesman said this had been made possible
by a 1`remark4ble.1,i1ew rocket" and that
Premier Khruslkthev himself had given the
firing order.
This was pooh-pobbed in the United States,
which asserted no such rocket existed; that
Powers had been:,lying too high (more than
65,000 feet) to' be hit. Moreover, he had
horn captured alive and the Russians had
r?anv identifiable parts of his airplane on
rlisJelav.
The mystery never was cleared up. Its
,existence was the basis of suspicion that
something peculiar accounted for Powers'
capture. This was cleared up to the satis-
faction of the Central Intelligence Agency
last March, when it said its questioning of
Powers after his release from prison in Rus-
sia established that his plane had been dis-
abled by a rocket that damaged the plane's
tail assembly.
The body of Maj. Rudolph Anderson,
whose U2 was shot down by Russian "tech-
nicians" over Cuba, was returned to the
United States last weekend. No longer is
there anything to discuss : about the way
U2 planes can be destroyed. Rockets guided
by a system that is sensitive to heat can
seek out high-flying jets and cripple them.
The people who said terrible things about
Francis Gary Powers for escaping with his
life presumably feel better about Maj. An- ,
derson, who wwasn`t so fortunate. j
This editorial also appeared in:
Canton, Ohio, TPOSITORY, November 6, 1962
Portsmouth, Ohio, TIMES, November 6, 1962
Approved For Release 2000/08/03 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400080017-8