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In 1958 Russian Premier Nikita Krushchev had
stated that the Potsdam Treaty which declared four-power control over
Berlin was no longer effective and should be scrapped. A summit conference
to discuss the future of Berlin, and also arms control, had been set
up to take place in Paris in May 1960. Kruschev revealed that the Russians
had known about the surveillance missions for some time and had at last
managed to down one of the planes. He denounced the American aggression
and called off the summit conference.
The State Department in Washington claimed that Powers was a civilian
pilot carrying out weather research, who must have strayed off course.
They said that the cameras on board his craft were used for taking pictures
of clouds. President Eisenhower initially denied that Powers was on
a spying mission, but later had to admit the fact and promised there
would be no further missions. The U.S. Government also announced that
the flights had been necessary for security reasons. The following month
Powers was put on public trial in a Moscow courtroom. During the three-day
trial Powers pleaded guilty to spy charges and said that he had been
flying from a U.S. base in Pakistan, acting on orders from the Central
Intelligence Agency.
On 19th August he was found guilty by the court and sentenced to ten
years imprisonment. The first three years were to be spent in a prison
and the rest of the sentence in a labour camp. Meanwhile, Rudolph Abel,
a Soviet intelligence officer, who had entered the U.S. illegally under
the name Emil R. Goldfus in 1948, had been convicted in 1957 for conspiring
to transmit military secrets to the U.S.S.R. and was serving 30 years
imprisonment in an American jail. His defence attorney, James Britt
Donovan, began to work out an exchange deal and on 10th February 1962
Abel was exchanged for Powers and Frederic L. Pryor, An American student
who had been held in East Germany without charge since August 1961.
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