Spy Pilot: Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy

Начало книги

In the interest of clarity, after the introduction, the narrative of Spy Pilot unfolds in the third person. Once Francis Gary Powers Jr. is born in 1965, the book is written in first person from his perspective.

For more than two decades, I have watched Francis Gary Powers Jr. work tirelessly to honor and preserve the memory of his father, an ordinary American who was caught up in extraordinary circumstances.

I, too, have made great efforts to honor and preserve the legacy of my father, Nikita Khrushchev.

This is something Gary and I have in common.

During those difficult days of the Cold War, when my father led the Soviet Union (1953–1964), he managed to avert nuclear disaster while working with American presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. He helped move the two superpowers toward peaceful coexistence. Not peace, but peaceful coexistence.

Still, it was an acknowledged fact that both countries spied on each other. The war of secrets was important in helping East and West avoid armed confrontation.

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