From 1955 to 1958, U2 spy planes had been flying photograph missions over the Soviet Union. The planes flew at an altitude of 75,000 feet, which, for years, was beyond the capability of Soviet planes and antiaircraft weapons. However, on May 1, 1960 the U2 plane piloted by Gary Powers was shotdown by a SAM-2 missile. Powers was captured with all of his gear and wreckage of the plane.

President Eisenhower had known about previous flights, but denied that the plane was flying in Soviet airspace. On May 7, 1960 Khrushchev announced that they had captured the U2 spyplane and its pilot. He disparaged the United States for spying, stating that, "the militarists in the Pentagon...seem unable to call a halt to their war effort".

Despite the United States' explanation that the U2 flights were intended to patrol the borders of the free world as a precaution against surprise attacks, these events disrupted the peace process already in progress between Eisenhower and Khrushchev. Khrushchev openly questioned the intent of the United States in the peace process.

The United States' second response was that the Soviet Union had access to the open societies of the free world and could establish espionage networks; therefore, the United States should be allowed to monitor the Soviet Union. It was the responsibility of the United States to protect itself and free people everywhere from the possibility of a surprise attack.

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	Brief footage of a U2 plane in action.
	Gary Powers, Jr. radio interview in Vienna, Austria on December 1, 2007.
	Voice of America interview with Francis Gary Powers Jr. (Translated in Russian), circa November 2001.
	Buy Operation Overflight by Francis Gary Powers Download a partial reading of Operation Overflight read by William Hope Originally broadcast by the BBC, May 2000.
	Information in German on the Glienicker Bridge where Francis Gary Powers and Rudolph Abel were exchanged on Feb 10, 1962.