POWERS GETS SECRET CIA MEDAL; SOVIETS ADMIT ABEL MASTER SPY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400100036-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 1999
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: May 5, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

CPYRGHT
WAMI HERALD
Sanitized - Approved [ - RCIt'I e : CIA-
Cerentolly 111IS11-4hish
Powers ;Gets Secret CIA Medal;
Soviets Admit .Abel Master Spyl
New York Heraid Tribune Wire
WASHINGTON - In a se-
reticeremony, the Central In-
elligence Agency' last month
warded a secret medal to
Francis Gary Powers, the U2
ilot whose crash on May 1,
960, deep inside the Soviet
nion shook the world - and
aused a good deal of anguish
o the CIA.
The summit meeting in Paris
ollapsed in the wake of the U2
uproar. The affair chilled East-
West relations and ended any
caningful contact between
resident Eisenhower and then
o .v i e t Prhmier Nikita S.
{hrushchev.
Powers,. officially a test pilot
in Burbank, Calif. for the Lock-
heed Aircraft Corp., manififac-
tuier of the U2, received the
IA medal in a ceremony
about two weeks ago at the
intelligence agency's headquar-
ters in Langley, Va.
Like the ceremony, the med-
al is secret. Powers is not sup-
posed to tell anybody about it,
under-the-lapel medals," i
Powers, now 35,, was traded
for Soviet master spy Rudolf
Ivanovi& Abel on Feb. 10,
1962. The exchange, arranged
by New York attorney James
B. Donovan, took place on a
mist-shrouded bridge in Berlin.
By ' an odd coincidence,' the.
Soviet Union Tuesday made)
the first admission that Col.'
Abel had served as a master
POWERS , rated for his exchange for Pow-
ers. A Moscow television 'pro-
In. fact, it is sort of an invisiblei gram said Abel had served in
medal. Soviet intelligence since 1927.
,It is unusual for the Russians
Certainly CIA isn't talking to admit that they have spies,
about it. When a spokesman but in recent weeks, this policy
for the agency was asked toiseems to have shifted. Soviet
confirm the award, he replied: 'iagents are being hailed as
"No comment at all. He's a'heroes for home consumption,
former employe. We don't com-l' The telecast ? told how Abel
ment on former employes." I was defended against a "possi=
However, it was . reliably;ble death sentence" by Dono-
learned that the secret medal I van, but the broadcast never
was awarded at a ceremony once' disclosed that the Soviet
attended by several top offi- spy had done his spying in the
vials of the CIA. The award is U.S. A federal court in NeW
known by some in the intelli- York sentenced Abel to, 30
KIe-.is not supposed to wear it.' genre business as :"one of ithose years In 1957.
STATINTL
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400100036-4