STRANGERS ON A BRIDGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400100076-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 1999
• Sequence Number: 76
• Publication Date: March 28, 1964
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-
SATURDAY EVENING
POSE
MAR 2 8 1964
JAMES B. DONOVAN
CPYRGHT
STATINTL
A daring secret mission revealed: ,
Ordered to swap Soviet spy Abel for
U-2 pilot Powers, he gambled'for
much higher stakes-and won.
n a June morning in 1957 the FBI arrested one "Col. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel" in
his Manhattan hotel room. In his Brooklyn artist's studio, they found radios,
maps, code books-all the paraphernalia of espionage. Abel, whose real name
was never known, was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. On the recom-
mendation of the Brooklyn Bar Association his defense had been conducted by James
Britt Donovan, a noted lawyer and an associate prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.
For much of this time Abel was allowed to correspond, through U.S. censors, with
relatives behind the Iron Curtain, and there was strong suspicion that this "family"
was in reality a group of agents for K.G.B., the Soviet secret intelligence. (The
"family" paid Donovan's legal fees of $10,000, which he donated to Fordham,
Harvard and Columbia.)
Then in May, 1960, Francis Gary Powers, a pilot employed by the CIA for high-
altitude photographic missions, crashed his U-2 plane on Soviet territory near
Sverdlovsk. Talk at once began about an exchange of captives-our U-2 pilot for the
Red -master spy. A year later "Mrs. Abel" wrote to Donovan suggesting exactly such. On this morning at 10 o'clock I re-
a deal, which indicated that Soviet authorities were interested. Meanwhile Francis, ceived at my law office in New York a
Powers had been sentenced to three years in a Soviet prison and seven more in a labor cablegram from Berlin which read HAPPY
camp. Would President Kennedy grant the necessary executive clemency to obtain i NEW YEAR and was signed HELEN. The
Abel's release? Seven months after Mrs. Abel's letter to Donovan, American authori- meeting in East Berlin was set.
ties made their decision. Here, using his own private diaries and confidential re-
ports, Donovan tells the dramatic inside story for the first time. ' Saturday, January 27
Thursday, January 11
At the request of the. United States
Government, I attended a meeting in
Washington and was told it had been de-
termined "on the highest level" that it
would be in the national interest to effect
a Powers-for-Abel exchange.
"If you are willing," they said, "we
would like you to undertake a mission to
East Germany to negotiate the exchange."
I sent from Washington a letter to
"Frau Helen Abel" in Leipzig, in East
Germany, which had been her address for
the past three years. I said that there had
been "significant developments" which
I took a cab to the Harvard Club to
meet a Washington contact for my final
briefing. I gave him my detailed itinerary
I concluded: for the trip, and he informed me when I
could expect to receive official instruc-
My proposal is that I meet you at the Soviet tions in London.
embassy in East Berlin on Saturday, Febru- He told me that the East Germans were
ary 3, 1962, at 12 noon. It is imperative that holding a young American Yale student
no publicity be given to this meeting by any from Michigan named Frederic L. Pryor
party. Accordingly, if the foregoing meeting is for trial on espionage charges. Before
satisfactory, please cable me at my law office the Berlin Wall was erected, Pr or had
only the message "Happy New Year." Y
been doing research in East Berlin to
I believed it necessary for me to carry complete his doctorate thesis on trade
an official letter which would convince behind the Iron Curtain. He dug too
the Russians that the United States Gov- deeply, obtained some material regarded
ernment would stand by my commitment as confidential, and now the East Ger-
to release Abel. Late on this afternoon I mans planned a propaganda trial. The
was given such a letter, which I criticized prosecutor had publicly announced that
as being so cautious in its wording as to he would demand the death penalty for
be ambiguous. However, they declined the young American. It was believed that
to change it, and it was all that I carried the whole affair was being publicized
Sanitized - Approved For. Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R0004b'Q#>O16-0
.into East Germany as evidence of my
status and good faith. It was on Depart-
ment of Justice stationery and read:
Dear Mr. Donovan:
With respect to the recent conference with
you regarding executive clemency for your
client, this is to assure you that upon the ful-
fillment of circumstances as outlined the rea-
son set forth in the letter to your client's wife
as to why executive clemency should not be
considered, will no longer exist.
Sincerely yours,
Reed Cozart
Pardon Attorney
Thursday, January 25