u-2 incident

The U-2 Incident abruptly ended the thaw. An American U-2 spy plane was shot down in the U.S.S.R. in May 1960. The Soviet Union captured the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, who confessed he was a spy. Eisenhower accepted personal responsibility for the flight. He admitted that U-2 planes had been flying over the U.S.S.R. taking photographs for four years. When the summit conference began on May 15, Khrushchev demanded that Eisenhower …

…left Paris sadly convinced that US-Soviet relations had been dealt a serious setback. In conclusion, the end to the Cold War was apparent in May 1960 with an agreed United States-Solviet Summit in Paris. But the likelihood to end the Cold War collapsed when President Eisenhower authorized a U-2 spy plane mission over Soviet airspace which was shot down. Because of the U-2 incident the end of the Cold War was not securable for over 30 years.