Soviet Government Accuses the United States of Espionage Following the U-2 Incident (1960)

Date: July 28, 1960

Original or Replica: Original

Era: The Presidency, The Cold War

Collection: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Citations: Office of the Staff Secretary, Subject Series, Alphabetical Subseries, Box 15, Intelligence Matters (15); NAID #12010103

This May 10, 1960 State Department telegram from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow transmits a Soviet government note concerning the U-2 Incident. On May 1, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down while conducting a secret intelligence mission deep inside the Soviet Union. The Eisenhower administration initially claimed that the missing aircraft was conducting weather research, but the Soviet Union revealed that Powers had survived and that evidence recovered from the aircraft demonstrated its espionage mission.

The Soviet note condemns the flight as a deliberate violation of Soviet territory and describes equipment recovered from the aircraft, including cameras and devices intended to gather information about Soviet radar and defenses. It states that Powers admitted following an assigned reconnaissance route and identifies his connection to a unit operating under cover of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Soviet government also attacks the State Department’s original weather-research explanation as an attempt to mislead American and international public opinion. Finally, the note rejects American references to the earlier “Open Skies” proposal, arguing that Soviet rejection of that plan did not justify unilateral reconnaissance flights. The document demonstrates the serious diplomatic confrontation created by the U-2 Incident shortly before the scheduled Paris Summit.