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
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PDF icon CIA-RDP75-00001R000400080017-8.pdf44.74 KB
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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