Gary Powers

[dcunning30]

I think that Eisenhower embarrased himself, autorising the U-2 flights over Soviet Union. The incident ruined an international conference or reunion between USA / URRS. Sorry I dont remember exactly.

That's true.  Although, it wasn't like the Soviets weren't spying on the west.  In fact, the Soviets had quite the head start in spying.  During WWII, the Soviets recruited 4 or 5 English men who all knew each other.  If my memory is accurate, they were known as the Oxford 5, or something like that.    Ultimately, their spying led to Soviet actions that caused the US to have to implement the Berlin Airlift.

[Hagar]

[quote]During WWII, the Soviets recruited 4 or 5 English men who all knew each other.

[ozzy72]

If you want to know about KGB successes in spying there are three books worth reading;
KGB - John Barron
Spy Catcher - Peter Wright
The Mitrokhin Archive - Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin

[Hagar]

Fascinating article on the Cambridge spies here. http://www.crimelibrary.com/spies/cambridge/cambridgemain.htm

The spies were Burgess, Blunt, Maclean, and Philby.

There have been no more successful, more dramatically impressive spies than a group of Englishmen who all met at Trinity College, Cambridge University in the 1930s. To one degree or another, they were active for the Soviet Union for over thirty years. They were the most efficient espionage agents against American and British interests of any collection of spies in the Twentieth Century. One of them, Kim Philby, served the KGB for almost fifty years.

[ozzy72]

You forgot the fifth main John Cairncross

[Ivan]

The U-2 was thought to be beyond the range of Soviet AA missiles.  You can't blame the pilot for that.

On the edge of the effective altitude range of the SA-2...

Anyway the missile didn't reach the U2 at all but the shockwave kicked the plane out of balance forcing the pilot to bail out.

They hit a 'ride-of-your-life' MiG-19PU (MiG-19P with rocket boosters) with that shot too, killing the pilot

[WebbPA]

It's always nice to hear the Soviet point of view.

The next phase, of course, was Eisenhower's intentionally allowing the Soviet Union to launch Sputnik ahead of an American satellite, thereby setting up the "Open Sky" policy.

You can't complain if our satellites are overfying your country if your satellites overflew ours first.

[dcunning30]

Kim Philby & the Cambridge spy ring. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/09/99/britain_betrayed/444058.stmI don't know what connection, if any, they had with the Berlin Blockade.

They revealed that the US didn't have any more a-bombs at that time, so that emboldened the Soviets.

[dcunning30]

The next phase, of course, was Eisenhower's intentionally allowing the Soviet Union to launch Sputnik ahead of an American satellite, thereby setting up the "Open Sky" policy.

....and you have evidense proving out this notion that Ike intentionally allowed the Soviets to beat the US into space?

I just figured, the Soviets worked smarter and faster than the Americans during that period of space exploration.

[Radopilot]

I would have to second the previous post. The US had no such thing as a space agency until 1958. The only thing there was, was NACA, or the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. If my memory serves me right, NASA was created after the overflight of Sputnik. But even when the US finally had a space organization, the Soviets kept outfoxing the US until Kennedy made us get ourselves on the moon before the Soviets got that technologically advanced.

[WebbPA]

Link

The Eisenhower administration viewed the Soviet satellite less as a military threat than as a boost to its behind-the-scenes efforts to establish the principle of "freedom of space" ahead of eventual military reconnaissance satellite launches. Sputnik overflew international boundaries, yet it aroused no diplomatic protests. Four days after Sputnik's launch, on October 8, Donald Quarles summed up a discussion he had with Eisenhower: "the Russians have . . . done us a good turn, unintentionally, in establishing the concept of freedom of international space. . . . The President then looked ahead . . . and asked about a reconnaissance [satellite] vehicle."

[dcunning30]

Webb,

That doesn't cooberate your statement that Eisenhower intentionally allowed the Soviets to launch Sputnik ahead of American satelites.  According to your posted statement, it reads to me like the Eisenhower Administration saw Sputnik launched then assessed it's launching in a manner that they deemed favorable to them.

[WebbPA]

Of course he did.  Don't you know an insane conspiracy theory when you see one?

He was trying to make the best of a public relations fiasco by finding something positive in it.

This is something I would debate in a bar where no could look up the sources in real time.  I was surprised the NASA article came as close as it did to corroborating the story.

[dcunning30]

[quote]Of course he did.

[Radopilot]

ehhh not trying to steal the spotlight but didnt i have some credit? And by the way, does the US still do overflies with the SR71 still? Even better, are they overflying North Korea with it? We need to be.