Chapter Seven VOICE FROM THE GRAVE
When my mother died in June 2004, I took possession of a large collection of reel-to-reel audio tapes, featuring my father talking about all aspects of his life, which he recorded in 1969, while working with coauthor Curt Gentry on Operation Overflight. After converting the tapes to compact discs, I began methodically listening to the audio. Sometimes I played a CD while negotiating traffic. Other times I set aside time to go through a track in my office, slipping on headphones to make it easier to hear Dad’s words forming sentences and paragraphs. The details they contained proved very helpful in my journey of discovery, while producing a rather-powerful listening experience.
Oh, that’s how Dad sounded, I remembered thinking at one point. Time had stolen something that the tapes restored: I had forgotten the sound of my own father’s voice.
One reel was especially emotional. While listening to Dad discuss an aspect of his captivity, I was startled to hear the broken English of a small child’s voice injecting himself into the conversation.
“Hello, Daddy!”
It was my own voice.
“Hello, Gary,” Dad replied. “Your face is dirty!”1
It was a heartwarming moment for the son to hear his four-year-old self, interacting with his father and then his mother, who talked about their upcoming dinner.
I played the passage over and over again, all the while wiping back bittersweet tears.
As the custodian of such things, I also took great care to preserve and transcribe the personal journal my father kept while incarcerated at Vladimir Prison, as well as a large cache of family letters, including dozens Frank wrote and received while in the Soviet Union.
One batch of letters was presumed lost for good. Fortunately, a couple from Georgia salvaged Dad’s prison correspondence to Barbara from a storage facility after the rent went unpaid in the 1960s. After hearing about my efforts to learn about my father, they sought me out. We rendezvoused while I was on the road, between speeches, and they returned the letters while sharing a meal.
I was very surprised and so grateful for their kindness.
Thus the very personal exchanges between a husband and his wife, trapped on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain during a very trying time, were safeguarded for posterity.
After filing several different Freedom of Information Act requests, and being flooded with paperwork that was mostly useless, I finally acquired the transcript of the lengthy debriefing of my father by CIA officials in February 1962.
Together, these four surviving media instruments offered me a remarkably intimate glimpse into the most difficult period of my father’s life.
It was almost like Dad was speaking to me from the grave.
Not long after arriving at Vladimir, Dad’s new cellmate encouraged him to start keeping a diary. In this Zigurd Kruminsh contributed significantly to his friend’s enduring record. (I repeatedly tried to track down Kruminsh’s family, without success, but eventually concluded that he was a KGB plant.)
Writing about the day of the U-2 Incident several months later, Dad recorded:
May 1, 1960. It is very hard to recall all that happened on this day. It is definitely a day I will never forget. I came closer to death on this day than any day I can remember….
Before and during the flight I continually thought of all the small things that could happen to cause trouble to the plane. One little screw could come loose or one little wire break and I would have to land on Soviet territory…. I was not worried at all about being shot down. I firmly believed that there was nothing that could reach my altitude and as long as I maintained my altitude and had no engine trouble I would be safe….2
Exactly what constituted his “maximum altitude” was to be debated for years, contributing significantly to the swirl of misinformation. CIA debriefers addressed the subject two years later:
US Interrogator: Alright. Let’s discuss altitude, ah, to the best of your recollections, Frank.
Powers: Starting at the beginning of the flight?
US Interrogator: Well, yeah, as to what your programmed altitudes were and, ah, what your recollections were.
Powers: Now briefing on that was to climb according to, ah, the regular schedule we had to carry in the climb which I did and, ah, climb to 70,000 feet—level—stay at 70,000 feet the entire flight. But the airplane will not with a full fuel load would not climb to, ah, 70,000 feet immediately. It takes normal[ly] a half hour or so, or I don’t know exactly how much time—I can’t recall. But I was at 70,000 feet I think shortly after crossing the Russian border. I don’t remember exactly where I got the, ah, altitude, but I remained at 70 the entire flight until this happened.
US Interrogator: You would say then that you were at 70,000 on this when this occurred?
Powers: When, ah, that’s what my altimeter, ah, showed, and the altimeter was set on a, a sea level, ah, well, ah, I even forgot the term. But 29.92, ah ah, was set in my altimeters at sea-level pressure.
US Interrogator: Barometric pressure?
Powers: Yes, ah huh. And it was indicating 70,000 feet. So any error that it might have had would be the only—
US Interrogator: Well now, was that the ceiling of the plane?
Powers: No, no. I could have possibly got up to, when the plane was hit, I say hit when the accident happened, the explosion occurred, ah, I could possibly get it up above 72,000 feet because I had retarded the power so I could remain at 70,000 as instructed to….
US Interrogator: What was the ultimate, ah, ceiling of the plane and with, ah, minimum fuel?
Powers: Minimum fuel, I could have gotten up to approximately—minimum fuel approximately 75,000 feet. But with the load I had at the time, I’d say maybe about 72. And that time. Maybe even 73, but somewhere in between those two was my estimate then….
US Interrogator: You were reported and said you were at 68,000 at that time I think. Was this… this I believe was a lesser altitude, wasn’t it, than you had?
Powers: Yes. That was…. I tried to save as much altitude as I could. I mean, not to let them know what the altitude was.
US Interrogator: But you had… oh, I see. Were you actually at 70?
Powers: I was at 70…. My scheduled plan was to climb until I reached 70 and maintain 70 for the duration of the flight.3
This exchange demonstrated the game my father played with his KGB interrogators. By claiming that he was flying at 68,000 at the time of the incident, he believed he was preventing the Soviets from knowing the limit of the U-2’s capability, which he believed might protect future pilots, while also communicating to the CIA that he was attempting to withhold key secrets. This was his way of saying, “Hey, guys, I’m not telling the full truth.”
By the time I secured the interrogation transcript, I had already confirmed that the government eventually concluded he had been shot down at an altitude of 70,500 feet.
I found it interesting that the CIA debriefers repeatedly came back to their question about how high Dad was flying and whether he was sure he did not have a flame-out or descend to a lower altitude before being shot down.
They pressed on this matter because of the classified National Security Agency report on the shoot-down. Only later would Washington learn that a Soviet fighter sent to try to ram the U-2 had been felled by one of the SA-2 missiles and was falling out of the sky at the same time, contributing to the murky situation, which key CIA officials eventually concluded that the NSA misinterpreted.
In 2010, I obtained a previously classified internal CIA interview with John McMahon, the deputy director of special projects during the U-2 Incident. McMahon left no doubt about the hostility some harbored toward Dad, especially McCone.
McCone—influenced by the National Security Agency report, which argued that the pilot “descended to a lower altitude and turned back in a broad curve toward Sverdlovsk before being downed”4—ordered the Prettyman board to reconvene to consider the additional evidence. However, the commission found the evidence inconclusive. The difference in opinion among the American intelligence establishment was hidden from the public but apparently played a role in the CIA’s unwillingness to offer a full-throated defense of him.
McCone was trying to save face. He had put his reputation on the line when he suggested Dad was complicit in his capture, and he was going to do everything he could to show he was right, at the expense of Dad’s reputation.
After McMahon determined, based on certain secret information, which was never revealed during the trial, that Dad had “followed our directions to the letter,” an argument broke out “between myself and [James] Angleton on what would happen with Powers. I urged an exchange and I wrote a paper that General Cabell approved. Then I attended meetings where we tried to figure out, as a community, where to go next. Those meetings were usually at State. President Kennedy approved that we try and get Powers out. Our friends in the CI [Central Intelligence] Staff did everything they could to torpedo that exchange. I can remember several officials in State speaking against the exchange. I pointed out that President Kennedy authorized the exchange, and I wanted the names of those that were against it. The objections disappeared. John McCone, who was the head of the ABC when Powers was shot down, proclaimed then that he defected. So, as Director, he wasn’t too happy eating those words.”5
Air Force Major Harry Cordes, who began working with Detachment B at Groom Lake and eventually deployed with the unit to Turkey, released a written history that also proved enlightening. By the time of the shoot-down, he had been reassigned to SAC as an intelligence officer, but he received all of the intelligence reports concerning the U-2 Incident. While Cordes defended my father, his immediate superior, Colonel Keegan, “considered Powers a traitor for talking to the Soviets, not destroying the U-2 with the destruction switches, and especially for not taking his life with the lethal needle concealed in a coin.”6 Cordes wound up as one of the men who debriefed Dad for the CIA.
The agency men went to great lengths to rule out every possible alternative to a shoot-down.
US Interrogator: That orange glow yeh—a—a—would that sort of phenomenon occur possibly in connection with a flame-out? Could it?
Powers: Well let’s see. I’ve had several just ordinary flame-outs in this airplane and there’s nothing like that, a, in fact, flame-out[s] earlier in the program were, a, very, a, frequent and, a, it couldn’t have been associated with a flame-out in any way. Now, I thought maybe that if say the, I, I remember hearing one time that after an engine change, inspection and so forth, working on a[n] airplane that they were running it up on a, a test stand and the whole tail pipe—jet exhaust pipe—there blew out. Now something like that might have caused it, but I’m sure I would feel that definitely in the airplane if this thing was going through—and not only that, the paint on the tail section would be, I’m sure, would be burnt completely off.
US Interrogator: Now—now one other question. Have you given any consideration to the possibility that there are, a, that this, a, that there could have been sabotage to the plane?
Powers: I’ve done a lot of thinking about this, and I don’t see how there could be. I don’t really see how there could be, because we had tight security and the plane was flown from [REDACTED] moved into a hangar and all of our people who I would trust anywhere worked on it. The plane was taken out—no one else got around it—and then I felt it, so it—it had several hours on it before this time, and no one knew whether the plane would go the next day or not, so they couldn’t—say—set a bomb of some kind in it because they wouldn’t know.
US Interrogator: Could a bomb be set in it that would go by altitude? Or by time?
Powers: Well, no, because—well, timing would be it but—see—there was a thirty-minute delay on my flight, and we didn’t even known that the fight would go the next day. It might be canceled and go—go back to Turkey.
US Interrogator: Then—professionally—with your reasoning, you can’t think of any way that this thing could be sabotaged?
Powers: I don’t see how it could possibly be sabotaged….7
Several years after I acquired the interrogation document, I received in the mail an unmarked envelope with a transcript of the once-classified interviews conducted by the Prettyman commission. The members also spent significant time investigating the possibility someone could have gotten to the plane in Pakistan or provided intelligence about its takeoff to the Soviets.
An official whose name was redacted told the commission: “From the time that the Detachment left [REDACTED] until the time that it arrived back at [REDACTED]… [we] were on guard for any unusual activity or personnel that might be involved. There was a limited number of contacts with base people, and I personally did the majority of these. The other people of my Detachment stayed within the small hangar area. So if there had been any unusual personalities within that general area, then we would have discovered this, I feel sure of this, from a security standpoint….”8
The agency people also investigated the possibility of mechanical problems.
US Interrogator: I was wondering whether the autopilot had given you any trouble.
Powers: It gave me some trouble for several minutes there and finally I just discarded it altogether. I could have made a decision to turn around and come back, which would have been a very good decision to make I think, but since I was—by looking at the maps—approximately halfway, the weather was bad behind and perfectly clear ahead, and I had some short-cuts I could take ahead—I thought I’d go along….9
The controversy caused by Oliver’s apparent confusion on the cause of the crash caused Frank significant distress.
After trying to clear up the matter with his letter to the New York Times—which so served Soviet purposes that they made sure it also ran in Pravda—Frank wrote directly to his parents:
6 September 1960
Dear Mom & Dad,
I guess you will be surprised to get this letter so soon after the other one. I would have waited until I received an answer to my last letter but I have been shown an article in the August 27th issue of the New York Times and I thought I had better clear up an apparent misunderstanding. In that article you stated that I said I didn’t think I was shot down. I do not remember talking about this at all except during the trial.
There I stated that I did not see what it was that hit me. I felt and heard an explosion and saw an orange colored flash. My engine was working good up to this time. My only conclusion is that something exploded near the airplane. What it was I do not know because I did not see it. I did not feel an impact therefore I think it was the shock wave from the explosion that caused failure of my plane. I think the tail came off first because the aircraft nosed down. Then I think the wings came off and I started spinning in an inverted position.
The thing that I want to stress is the fact that I did not say I didn’t think I was shot down. In fact I think it was for the reasons stated above. The flight had been normal up to this time. Everything was working good except the automatic pilot which I had disengaged several minutes before the explosion because the pitch control was not working good. The air was smooth and the plane was flying good and there was no reason for any explosion except an external one not connected with the airplane. I was flying at maximum altitude as I stated during the trial. I asked you when I saw you to be careful what you said. I wanted everything to die down as soon as it could. Maybe you did not say these things and the newspaper misunderstood, or if you did then you misunderstood when I said here.
I have been told that there are people in the States who think I landed the plane here to give it to the Russians. This is not true. My intensions [sic] were to carry out my assignment as near as I could and if I had not been shot down I think it would have been successful. Anyone who saw the remains of the plane would know it would not [have] landed normally but in many pieces.
I ask you once again to be careful what you say to reporters. I said nothing to you that could be used as news so I ask you not to quote me. You can say anything you want about your experiences here and what you think. But please don’t say what you think I may be thinking or look for any hidden meaning in what I said to you or what I write to you. I am very sorry to be writing to you like this but that article in the newspaper upset me and I wanted to straighten it out.
I love all of you very much and I know you would not do anything to hurt me in anyway if you can possibly help it. You might think it is worth it to be in prison if my pay continues. It might be to someone else but there is not enough money in the US and USSR put together to make me want to stay in prison. I would gladly give everything I have now and anything I would have in the future to get out today. Since the only way I can get out is to serve my term or be exchanged or pardoned then I will just have to wait and see what happens. It isn’t pleasant but there is no alternative.
Well that is about all for now except that I hope all of you and Barbara are getting along together. Please, for my sake, don’t let the hard feelings continue. My trouble is enough for several families without you people making it worse.
I would appreciate it if you all kept in contact and learned to be closer together. I hoped and prayed that my misfortune would keep you close rather than cause trouble.
Well, bye for now.10
In a reply from his parents dated September 17, 1960, Ida expressed remorse for the controversy, telling her son: “I was so sorry the newspapers misquoted the news. Daddy only stated what you said at the trial…. I told Daddy not to say anything to the reporters…. I hope nothing has hurt you any.”11
After he returned home, Francis told the CIA debriefers: “When I read [the New York Times] article, it made me very angry with my father…. I personally wanted you people to know that I thought I had been shot down.”12
With all the time in the world to let his mind wander, my father understood that the question of what happened to cause his crash reflected a fundamental issue that cut to the heart of the most closely guarded secrets on both sides.
“I got the impression,” he said in his tapes, “that someone was going out of their way to stress the fact that there was a malfunction in the airplane or something to hush-hush the fact that [the Soviets] did have a defensive weapon that was capable of [shooting the U-2 out of the sky]…. All I could see was a friend of mine coming over and getting shot down himself. I wanted it known that they had this capability. Someone apparently was trying to cover up the fact that they had this capability.”13
Especially in light of the U-2 that was shot down over Cuba in 1962, I understood my father’s frustration. All of the sudden, Washington officials were faced with the political dilemma of having to admit that the Soviets were more advanced than they realized. Instead of clearing this up, the government allowed the misinformation to continue to circulate.
When I first started to transcribe my father’s journal, while in graduate school at George Mason, I took great care to methodically type the words. It became something I usually did after arriving home at night, hunched over my computer for an hour or two at a time. I always felt like I learned something. It was part of the puzzle slowly being revealed to me, including the early portions when Dad described the moments after he lost control of the plane.
“My first reaction was to reach toward the destruction switches,” he wrote. “I knew that after activating them I would have seventy seconds in which to leave the plane before the explosion. I then thought I had better see if I could get into the position to use the ejection seat before activating the switches. It was a good thing I did this because I spent several minutes I suppose (I don’t know how long I was in the spinning plane), trying to get my feet in the proper place and trying to get far enough back into the seat so that I could eject without tearing my legs off on the canopy rail as I shot out of the cabin. I could not get into the proper position. I was not sitting at all but hanging by the seat belt and it was impossible to shorten the belt with all the forces against it….”14
This sequence became an important part of the debriefing.
US Interrogator: As you moved down in your seat in that odd inverted position, the plane was not flaming or smoking or anything, was it, as far as you could recall it?
Powers: I would say there was no fire connected with…
US Interrogator: No fire connected with it. In other words, …it wasn’t billowing smoke or…
Powers: If it was, I knew nothing about it.
US Interrogator: And, and then, then…
Powers: I feel sure that the engine stopped at this, ah, was stopping as this, ah, maneuver started to take place. Because I can remember somewhere along this that the, ah, RPM gauge was going down. But I can’t remember exactly when I noticed that. There was some—when the nose dropped there was some very violent maneuvers. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. I don’t know exactly what happened there. And it didn’t take long. But it ended up in that inverted position going around, and I think it was going around clockwise….
After deciding to bail out and eventually parachuting to the ground, Dad wrote about his feelings concerning his impending fate: “I knew I was as good as dead and I also knew in my own mind that my death would not be a fast one but one of slow torture….”
US Interrogator: When you got to the ground… you didn’t try to escape?
Powers: No, there was… while I was still lying there on the ground with the parachute dragging me, one man was helping me out of the parachute and the other was trying to help me up, and by the time I got on my feet and took the helmet off, there was a large group around.
US Interrogator: There was just no opportunity to even think of escaping?
Powers: I think I couldn’t have gotten through this group if none of them were armed…. I don’t think any of them were, but it was just a large press of people and I could not have gotten through anyway.
US Interrogator: Yeah, now then…
Powers: And they had also taken this .22 pistol away from me before I had an opportunity to even think about it.
US Interrogator: You didn’t resist in any way?
Powers: No, I gave no active resistance.
US Interrogator: Why didn’t you resist?
Powers: Just too many people.
US Interrogator: Uh-huh. It just would have been foolhardy, in other words?
Powers: That’s what it seemed to me. It just seemed that… well, I’m alive right now. I could try to escape, which I wanted to do. I was pretty much in shock at the time also, I don’t suppose I was thinking too clearly, but I was looking around, trying to see some way to escape or something to do, and all these people milling around…. It was just impossible to do anything, in my opinion.15
After concluding the interrogation, Harry Cordes and his colleague John Hughes, who represented the Defense Intelligence Agency, flew to Washington to brief a series of high-ranking officials, including Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who criticized the pilot’s decision to proceed after his autopilot malfunctioned. Cordes emerged as an important advocate for my father against the forces who doubted his story, especially John McCone.
Confronting the NSA report suggesting the pilot had descended below 30,000 feet before being shot down, Cordes shot holes in the theory by citing inaccurate data produced during similar incidents, including the loss of the RB-47. “I had knowledge of the same intelligence information,” he said, “but I believed Powers.”16
While reading and transcribing my father’s journal entries concerning the KGB interrogations, it was difficult for me to maintain any sort of detachment. I could feel my father’s desperation, the emotional roller-coaster ride he was experiencing, not knowing whether he would ever get to go home.
Writing about the experience several months after the fact, Frank said:
I felt that there was no hope for me. I thought I would be tortured and later shot—probably without anyone outside the Soviet Union ever knowing what had happened to me. I did not realize or even think of the political importance of the incident and how it would be used. If I had been able to think clearly I might have come to the conclusion that the incident and therefore myself were too important to keep secret and not used to the utmost to sway world public opinion away from the US and to the USSR….
During the interrogation on the third of May I was asked about the radio communication equipment on board the U-2, and if I informed my base of what happened to me. I refused to answer these questions and told them that I personally felt it was to my advantage not to answer them….
My thinking at the time was that my mother, with her bad heart, might be killed by the news of my probable death, not to mention how it might affect my father and wife. I thought that the Soviet Union, not knowing whether or not I had communicated with my base would be more likely to release the news that I was alive than they would be if I told them I did not communicate the details of the accident to them. I assumed that if they thought that I did call my base and told them that there had been an explosion and that I was bailing out that they would go ahead and release the news of my being alive….
Now that I think back I am sure they would have released the news anyway because the incident was too important to the Soviet Union politically to be hushed up and put aside.17
How he interacted with his captors was a subject that loomed large in his CIA debriefings.
US Interrogator: Almost immediately you had to… arrive at some decision in your mind as to how you were going to deal with these people, that is… you could decide to tell them to go to hell, you weren’t going to talk, or you were going to cooperate with them to a certain extent, or you were not going to cooperate with them. How did you… what decision did you arrive at in this regard and how did you arrive at it?
Powers: And when?
US Interrogator: Yeah.
Powers: At Sverdlovsk when I saw that my story that I had made up was no good whatsoever, I decided then… I remember then hearing this briefing that I had that there would be torture, that may as well, in an event like this when there was capture, may as well tell them everything because they would get it out of you anyway, and just make it last as long as possible because… the longer they thought you knew something, the longer you would live, and I decided then that I would cooperate with them to a certain extent. There [were] some thing, things, that I was never going to tell them.
US Interrogator: Now this was briefings that you got from [REDACTED] prior to going or over a period of time?
Powers: I think… I’m pretty sure they were all from [REDACTED] and not just prior to this flight but over a period of time before this flight. One probably was when we… when this pin was given to us and we were told what it would do, and we were told we could take it if we wanted to and so forth…. I think he briefed us some there, and I’m not positive whether this particular question about telling everything came up before my flight while we were studying the maps, or maybe before someone else’s operation that I was in on. But I do remember hearing it and I do remember that it came to my mind at that time.
US Interrogator: But finding yourself in this situation you had the background of briefing of that type?
Powers: Yes, and that decided my course. I don’t know what I would have done if I had not thought of that. I have no idea; but, you’ve got to realize that I was in a pretty good state of shock at the time. I… probably wasn’t thinking too clearly, although it seems to me that I was, but I was nervous, my heart was… pulse rate very fast, and, felt horrible. I don’t remember how long I’d been up at that time, but I was completely exhausted seemed like. But anyway, this entered my mind and when I saw that my cover story did not hold up or the one that I made up would not hold up, I knew there was… I wanted to keep as much information from them as possible… and I knew there were some things that… that it would be very embarrassing for a lot of people [to] find out about it, and I was going to do my best to keep that type of information from these people; but I also decided at that time and between that… that time and also on the airplane to Moscow, which took a few hours, I don’t remember how long… that in order to… to withhold this information that I thought was very important, I had to convince these people that I was telling them the truth. And doing that, I had to anticipate what would be released in the press, which I had no idea what would be. And maybe my imagination ran away with me in some of these instances because the press seems to have a pretty good intelligence system of their own…. There was a lot of thoughts like this running through my mind, but I definitely made up my mind that some things couldn’t be revealed. Other things that might appear in the press, they would know that I was telling the truth in everything. And I think it worked fairly good in several cases….18
On this matter, the Prettyman inquiry interviewed at least one senior official who worked with my father.
[NAME REDACTED]: We followed a practice—at least I did—of telling the pilots that if they were captured that they were of course to attempt not to reveal any information at all, if possible—and this usually degenerated into a fairly general discussion of ways and means. We would discuss Air Force experience with PW’s [prisoners of war], and the fact that eventually almost anyone could be broken down and compelled to talk—and that the tactics should be to delay—not an out-and-out lie if you’re going to get caught in it, but delay your interrogators as much as possible—give him a limited amount of information and specifics… [especially with regard to] altitude and performance of the aircraft….19
The CIA debriefers eventually moved on to finding out what the Soviets learned about his mission.
US Interrogator: Did they ask you questions concerning what you were after in the remaining portion of the flight?
Powers: See, there were a few notations [at this point, he was gesturing to a map similar to one captured by the Soviets]. I think, up here, we had a few airfields annotated. The main thing they wanted to know was how I knew or how I got the information that there would be an airfield there. See, it wasn’t on the map, we had put it there ourselves, and I just told them that someone gave it to me to put it on. Where he got it I don’t know. They wanted to know what I was looking for, and I told them, “I don’t know.” And actually I don’t know.
US Interrogator: Did they try to pump you with any suggestions?
Powers: Well, I don’t know whether they mentioned rocket-launching sites or if that’s the thing that came into my mind when they asked this question, but I know it was in my mind anyway—these rocket-launching sites.
US Interrogator: Did they at any time at all threaten you with any physical harm during your interrogations?
Powers: No, but they did just the opposite, told me that I would not be tortured. Of course, I didn’t believe them. They at no time—well, at Sverdlovsk, one time, I had some ear trouble, I guess from past descent, and I reached up two or three times to—well, I don’t know, habit, I guess—to try to clear the ear and one time, I guess, a man grabbed my hand and threw it down, and that is the roughest treatment I got. They never hand-cuffed me. Those people at that first place looked fairly angry and mean, but the only thing was this throwing my hand down.
US Interrogator: Did they, on the other hand, try to coerce you by bribery of any kind? Did they promise you something?
Powers: Now, this is something I don’t know. I tried to find out, now this was where [Roman Andreyevich] Rudenko was attorney general, or whatever he is, came in at one of the meetings with him. I was feeling fairly despondent and I said, “I’ll never get out of here.” And he said, “Oh, there are ways.” And I said, “What kind of ways?” He said, “Oh, there are just ways.” “Well, what kind of ways?” “Well, I think you should think about it.” And I went to the cell and thought about it, and I kept waiting for him to bring it up again because I was interested in what they were talking about, and they never did bring it up. So I mentioned it to the interpreter. I asked what kind of ways did he mean, and he said, “What do you think?” And I said, “Well, I have no idea.” And that is all that was mentioned. And it seemed at one time they might have had some sort of plan to maybe try to talk me into doing something and giving me my release as pay for something, I don’t know. That was just my impression of this little incident. I never did know what was meant by what he said.20
The KGB pushed him hard on the question of previous overflights. “They harped on it so much… every day,” he said on his tapes. “When I got angry, I said, ‘If I’d taken a thousand flights, do you think I’d tell you? They stopped [asking] shortly after that.”21
The CIA wanted to know about the condition of his wreckage.
US Interrogator: Frank, could you describe your visit to the Gorky Park to see the remains of the aircraft—the circumstances of that?
Powers: I think it was around the middle of May. I don’t remember whether they told me the night before or not. I think they did at the last interrogation on the day before that at a certain time—I think it was about nine o’clock in the morning that they were going to take me to review the remains of the aircraft. I don’t know that it was Gorky Park, but it seems like I’ve heard it mentioned here and that’s why I called it Gorky Park, but it was definitely a park. Took me out in an automobile and there was another automobile or two following. Got there. You know, they had ropes around, had all this roped off. There was one or two places they let me get in behind the rope to see something close, but most of the time I had to stay out in front of the ropes. Could get close to the stuff that was there. And they took me around, asking me about each of these individual pieces of equipment and so forth.
US Interrogator: What specifically did they ask you to identify, certain—?
Powers: Yes, it seemed to me they wanted me to identify some of this stuff, and some of it I couldn’t identify. I told them I didn’t know what it was. I couldn’t have identified it if I’d known what it was before, most of it. Some of it was in bad shape—you could see some of it, instruments banged up, but you could tell what they were.
US Interrogator: Were they interested in parts of it more so than others?
Powers: Well, they wanted to get some photographs of me standing in this area where they had the cameras and special equipment. They seemed to ask more questions about the special equipment than about the regular flight instruments and so forth.
US Interrogator: Was this a closed section of the park or were there others there?
Powers: There were a bunch of people there but they were all associated with KGB and guards and so forth.
US Interrogator: Not the general public?
Powers: No, not the general public. In fact we remained there a little longer, I guess, than they anticipated because when we came outside there was a group of people apparently waiting to get in blocked off out of the way. And they whisked me right into the car and out. I suppose they opened it up to the public then—I don’t remember how long it took or what time this was—I know it was in the morning—I think nine o’clock.
US Interrogator: Frank, was the aircraft, as you evaluated it, in condition generally consistent with what you might expect knowing you didn’t see it go down? Was there anything inconsistent or illogical in what you saw there?
Powers: Well, I don’t know. I know from some of the fighter planes that go down there’s very little left, but they probably go down much faster. It seemed to me to be in a little better shape than—well, it was in much better shape that I had hoped it would be, but I thought there would be a little more damage than it appeared. I was very glad that [much] of this stuff was mashed up so it couldn’t, I don’t believe it could be taken apart—looked like to me, but I guess they could. I was surprised that the—Oh, they showed me a photograph this morning that the tail section—it was from the side that I didn’t see—I only saw the other side—and this photograph looked much more damaged than the one that I remembered seeing of the tail section. In fact, I thought the horizontal stabilizers were on, but in this photograph one was missing. But since I only saw one side—I’m sure one side was on—it must have been.
US Interrogator: All of the stuff you saw at Gorky Park was—the best you could tell—was part of the U-2? Didn’t look like there was anything added?
Powers: Yes, it looked like everything I saw there was part of it.22
Completely shut off from the outside world, and unaware what his family had been told about the incident, the pilot was eager to contact his parents and his wife. Several days after visiting the wreckage, he was allowed to begin writing letters. The first was to his wife.
26 May 1960
My Dearest Barbara,
I want you to know that I love you and miss you very much. I did not realize how much until I found myself in this situation. Not knowing, when, if ever, I will see you again, has made me realize how much you mean to me. I have had plenty of time to think since I have been here and plenty of time to regret past mistakes.
I am sincerely sorry to cause you the suffering you must have had before you found out that I am still alive. I am also sorry to be the cause of any suffering or pain that you may be having because of the situation that I am presently in.
I hope with all my heart that you are well and everything is all right with you. I hope your trip back to the States was a good one. It looks like we will not get to take the boat trip back that we were planning on.
It is very hard to write this letter even though I have been wanting to write ever since I have been here. I don’t know what to say or how to say it.
I have been told that there is a lot of publicity in the U.S. papers about me. I was also told that you had returned to the States and that you are presently with your mother.
Barbara tell me how my mother and father are taking this. Is my mother all right? I was afraid that it might be too much of a shock to her. I am going to write to them as soon as I finish this letter but if my mother is ill they might not let me know like they did once before. I am depending on you for this information.
Well to get back to me, I am getting along as good as can be expected. I get more than I can eat and plenty of sleep. I have also been reading a lot. I have been treated much better than expected. For the first week or so I had no appetite at all but I am doing fine now.
When I had to bail out of the plane I skinned my right shin a little and carried a black left eye for two weeks. A lady doctor treated them both and they are well now.
That was my first experience with a parachute and I hope I will never have another. I could not use the ejection seat because of the G forces and had to climb out. My chute opened immediately how I don’t know, I don’t remember pulling anything. The people here tell me I am lucky to be alive but only time will tell me whether or not I was lucky.
Things happened pretty fast after that. Before dark that night I was in Moscow. I have been in the same cell since then. It gets pretty lonely here by myself but they have given me books to read and it helps to pass the time. I also get to walk in the fresh air every day that it doesn’t rain. One day I even took a sun bath. It has been a little too cold to do that every day.
On May 2nd I was taken on a tour of Moscow which I enjoyed very much. These people are real proud of their Capitol city and it is a beautiful city. Another time I was taken to a park to review the remains of my plane. Those are the only two times I have been out of this building.
Just now a guard asked me if I wanted to walk but I prefer to finish this letter so I said no.
Barbara, I don’t know what is going to happen to me. The investigation and interrogation is still going on. When that is over there will be a trial. I will be tried in accordance with Article 2 of their criminal code for espionage. The article states that the punishment is 7 to 15 years imprisonment and death in some cases. Where I fit in I don’t know. I don’t know when the trial will be or anything. I only know that I don’t like the situation I am in or the situation I have placed you in. I will try my best to make the most of it and I hope you will do the same.
I was told today that I could write letters to you and my parents. That was good news. I was also told that there appeared in one of the U.S. papers a statement that my father had made that he would like to come here and see me. I was told that if the U.S. government would let any of you come that you would be allowed to see me. I would rather you waited until the trial or after so that I could tell you what the results were. But I will leave the decision of when to come up to you.
I did take a walk after all. I just came back from it. It was getting pretty smoky in here and I needed the fresh air. I am still smoking too much. By the way these cigarettes here are pretty good.
I want to assure you Barbara that I am getting along fine. I am being treated very good and as I said before, much better than I expected. You probably have the idea that I had before that the treatment would be bad. Well it isn’t. It isn’t like home but a person can not expect to be treated at home in any prison. I don’t like to be locked up but under the circumstances I don’t expect anything else.
Darling I wish I had good news to give you. I know you worry about me but I don’t know what is going to happen. I will let you know of any new developments if I am allowed to.
Darling you are in charge of everything now. You have those Powers of Attorneys so use them as you see fit. Everything is in your hands and I trust to your judgment. I don’t want to hear anything about what you do with the money you and I saved, use your own judgment and do what you think is best but don’t bother me with your decisions. You are on your own now and I do not know for how long. Just be careful and maybe we can still buy a house some day. It is a pleasant thought, owning our own home, especially as I sit here in my cell thinking about it.
Well Darling, it is dark outside now and I guess I had better go to bed. I have written a lot more than I thought I could. At first I didn’t seem to think of what to write but it kept coming out.
Barbara, once again I say I am very sorry for everything. I hope that you are all right and I want you to know that I love you very much. I am sending you, with this letter,
As the production and consumption of correspondence quickly became a central part of his existence, my father wrote steadily to his wife and parents, including this second letter to Oliver and Ida:
21 June 1960
Dear Mom and Dad,
I received your answer to my letter yesterday and was very glad to hear that all of you are well. Several days ago I received your note that you sent in care of the American Embassy. I did not answer it but waited for an answer to my letter.
I have not heard a word as yet from Barbara. Do you know if there is anything wrong that she hasn’t written? I was told that it was written in the newspapers that she had received my letter. I should have had an answer by now. I guess it is on the way. Maybe I will get it tomorrow.
You stated in your letter that you would be leaving for the USSR in about fifteen days or when you received my answer to your letter. By this I take it that permission has been granted for you to visit me. I would like to see you very much but I still think it would be best for you to wait until the trial or after it when we could know what my fate is to be. I have no idea when the trial will take place but I could let you know when I find out.
If you come now the only thing you could find out is that I am getting along fine and am healthy. I don’t know how long you could stay but I am sure with your work back there that it couldn’t be long. You would then have to return not knowing any more about what is to happen to me than you did when you came. If you come after the trial than you could see me and know the results too.
Maybe you think that you will be able to help me in some way. I wish that you could but I see no way that you can. Your presence here could not alter the outcome of my trial.
I would give anything I possess if this had not happened. Not only because of the position that I find myself in but because of the worry and trouble I have caused you, not to mention an increase of tension in the world.
One can always look back and say that I wish I had not done that, but no amount of wishing or hindsight can change the results of something already done.
I hope that one of these days I will be able to do something that will make up for all the pain and sorrow I have caused you. If God is willing I will do my best. I know you are disappointed in your son and I know that I have not always been the dutiful son that you desired. For this I am very sorry. I want you to know that no one could have had better parents than I have had.
How I wish I could be there telling you this in person instead of writing it from a prison cell in Moscow. There are so many things I would like to tell you, things that I can’t seem to find words to express but things that I feel very strongly in my heart.
I am still getting along all right. I am being treated good and I have read numerous books. I am now studying or attempting to study Russian.
The weather here is warm now. Not quite as warm as it is there now but it is very nice. It rains a little more often here I think than it does there at this time of year.
I have been taking a walk and getting some sun every day. They still bring me too much food and I cannot eat it all. I have learned to like their yogurt very much. When I need cigarettes all I have to do is ask and they give them to me.
The people here have been much nicer to me than I expected them to be and I appreciate it very much. I think the Russians and American people would like each other if they knew each other better.
Well I guess I will stop for now. Please tell all my sisters and their families that I think of them often and wish them the best of everything. Please take care of yourselves and remember that I love all of you very much.
After one especially long and exhausting interrogation, he was taken back to his cell and fell into a deep sleep. He dreamed about being back on the farm in Virginia, with all of his family around. They were walking along a road toward the house when suddenly, he began to experience a severe pain in his leg, which caused him to fall behind. “They kept getting farther ahead of me and I tried to call to them to slow down,” he noted in his journal, “but for some reason could not do so…. I sat down beside the road watching all my family walking away from me, seeming not to know or to care that I was not with them….”25
Dad’s feelings of abandonment and isolation were easy to understand. He was especially concerned that he had heard nothing from Barbara.
When he finally received a reply from his wife, he quickly put pen to paper:
28 June 1960
My Dearest Barbara,
I cannot find words to describe what it meant to me to receive your letter. I have been very worried about you and could not understand why I had not heard from you. Knowing that you are okay has made me feel much better.
There is very little I can say about myself. Nothing has changed since I last wrote you. I still do not know any more than I did then about what is to happen to me or when my trial will be.
I am still taking daily walks and am getting a suntan. I still have plenty to eat and books to read. I have no complaints for the treatment I am receiving. My only complaint is that I am not there with you.
There is no need for you to try to send anything to me at the present time. There is nothing I need. If in the future I need anything and I am allowed to have it I will let you know.
Darling I am very sorry for the mess I have made out of our lives. All our plans and all our hopes seem to have been in vain. Needless to say my life would be much different if I had it to live over again. What’s done is done and there is nothing I can do about it now.
Stateside life apparently agrees with Eck. I can remember how we tried to get him to gain weight before. I suppose he gets better food there. Take good care of him Barbara for he is a fine dog.
I hope your mother is getting along all right. Tell her to take care of herself and not to work too hard.
Barbara try to keep my mother from worrying too much, and I would appreciate it very much if you would get in touch with her doctor and find out how her health is and let me know. I have been afraid that my being here might cause her to have another heart attack. I could never forgive myself if I were responsible for that.
I remember how you used to try to get me to write home more often.
I always kept putting it off even though I know they wanted to hear from me. They desired a better son than they had. Maybe I can make up for it someway in the future.
Darling I can’t tell you how much I miss you or how sorry I am that all this has happened. You also deserved better than this. It seems I have done nothing but hurt the people I love most in the world. I hope that I will have the opportunity to do better in the future, but the future doesn’t look very bright.
Barbara I can’t find words to express what I feel for you. You mean everything to me and I love you very much. Please take care of yourself Darling and don’t worry about me. You have your life and future to think of.
Well Darling I will stop for now. Remember that I love you very much and miss you more than I can say.
Not until I began listening to the tapes did I realize how much care the Soviets took to censor his letters while he was at Lubyanka. They often would make him rewrite a letter, with words changed and paragraphs moved.
In time, CIA officials wondered why he had not tried to communicate by inserting coded messages into his letters, which the government men pressed him on after his repatriation:
US Interrogator: Did you at any time, in any of your letters, attempt to make use of the Air Force communications system?
Powers: At first it was impossible—before the trial when I really wanted to do this it was impossible because it takes a little preparation work to do this and at first I had no paper and pencil. They gave me some a little later, but they kept track of the number of sheets of paper they gave me and counted them and there was—I could tell that someone was in my cell occasionally when I was out—apparently nosing around through things—and some of the letters I even had to write in the presence of someone. They weren’t particularly watching what I was writing, but they were sitting around somewhere in the room so it was impossible at that time. Later on I attempted to write twice. That was after the trial. After I’d been transferred to another prison and—well—my cellmate I think was all right, but I thought I couldn’t trust him. One day he was asleep and I started doing this and he woke up and I immediately stuck the stuff in my pocket. Another time he had gone to a dentist or something—I don’t remember what—and I started to do this, but he came back too soon and other than that we were constantly together all the time and it was impossible to do it without someone knowing you were doing something.
US Interrogator: In other words, this required certain deliberate arrangements of your writing in such a manner that you just couldn’t sit down—?
Powers: Well, I don’t know whether it would require all people to do this, but for me. I had to sit down and figure out this particular code and so forth on paper where I could watch it and continuously refer to it while I was writing and count up letters and words, etc. If there was some little simple arrangement, but if it is simple, then it might be caught too easily.
US Interrogator: In other words you found that it was just a little too complicated, the system itself was a little too complicated to apply under the condition that you were living in?
Powers: Yes. Now I thought that what I had heard about work camps—I thought that if I was transferred to one of those I would have ample opportunity to do this whenever I needed to say anything.
US Interrogator: Were you asked—?
Powers: Pardon?
US Interrogator: Were you asked something like this: “Are you trying to communicate in any code?” Or were you told—don’t try any codes?
Powers: No, they didn’t ask, was I trying to communicate, but they had asked me earlier if I knew any—any codes and I knew no codes. I told them, yes, I knew Morse code and that we used a little bit, but I probably couldn’t use it. International Morse Code. Well, they didn’t ask me code. They asked me cryptographic. Did I know any crypto—something, and I said, what is that, code? And he said, yes; and I said, I know only the Morse code and I never did know that too well so even though I’m sure they checked those letters very closely they seemed to believe that I didn’t have any way to communicate.27
Unaware that officials back in Washington had worked with Barbara to evaluate evidence of brainwashing, the pilot dealt with the issue in his journal:
Most all the people I came into contact with were kind and considerate. I was forced to do nothing. They gave me books to read to occupy my time and they were not political books. They showed no desire what-so-ever to convert me to their beliefs…. All of the publicity about brain washing is pure nonsense, and I personally think a figment of someone’s imagination who cannot believe that it is normal for someone to have a belief that is different from his own.28
Seven years after his release, once he was able to look back on the period, Dad displayed a more nuanced view on his tapes:
I didn’t have to read anything. Didn’t have to listen. If I had wanted to ask a question, they would have been more than happy. But they didn’t press things on me. They didn’t sit me down and lecture me about the Soviet Union or customs or how bad I was and how good they were. But I could see where when a person has only one source of information… 99 percent of any news I got was [from a] Russian source. Best source I had was the British Daily Worker…. These things, all major events there, slanted to the communist viewpoint…. Could see how you could start questioning things that you didn’t question before. After a year or so of reading nothing but one side you begin to lose track of the other side. I can see how a person if he was in prison, given nothing but communist literature for ten years, that he would probably be a communist when he got out. Unless he had something to compare it to.29
Without access to Western news sources, the letters he regularly received from his family helped cut through the veil of propaganda.
After the KGB completed its interrogation and the date of his trial was set, Frank composed his third letter to his wife:
19 July 1960
My Dearest Barbara,
Apparently you wrote your last letter before you received mine. I suppose you have received it by this time. The only reason that my parents received a letter before you did is because I received theirs before I received yours and I answered them.
While speaking of letters, there is no need for you to send them other than by regular air mail, they will reach me just as fast.
Since I last wrote you I have received one letter from home and one from my sister Joan. I have answered both of them and also, as my father requested, sent him a cable gram telling him he could come to visit me when it was convenient to him. He said his bag was already packed and apparently he plans to come soon.
The only reason I requested you to wait until the trial before visiting me was because I didn’t know how long it would be. I know that you would be very lonely here if you had to wait a long time. More lonely than you would be there with your Mother. I was told that you would be allowed to see me after the trial but I don’t know how often.
The trial date has been set for the seventeenth of August. I sure didn’t expect a trial for my birthday. Now you can make plans for your trip. I don’t want you to have to stay here in Moscow alone for a long period of time. You know how it is to be alone in a strange city.
You know that I would like to see you more than I can tell. You are always in my thoughts and it is impossible to tell you how much I miss you.
Please tell all the people that have offered their help to me that I appreciate it very much. If I knew of any way they could be of assistance I would let you know, but I know of no way. If they know of any way and want to help me I could never thank them enough for I am charged with a very serious charge, one of the few that carry the death penalty.
I have a Russian defense counsel appointed to defend me. I have talked to him several times and feel sure he will do his best and that is all I can ask of anyone.
Darling, I hope you can forgive me for making a mess of our lives like I have. I wouldn’t feel too bad if only I were involved. When I think of the pain I have caused you and my parents, I realize that no individual has the right to do things that affect others so much without their consent.
I would give all that I possess to be there with you again. Just to have the chance to start all over again and make you happy is something that I pray for. You mean too much to me, and because you do it hurts me very much to know that all the pain you are having now and may have in the future was caused by me, who would do anything to keep you from suffering. The old saying to the effect that you always hurt the one you love is too true.
I am still taking walks every day and am getting a fairly good suntan. I would much rather be getting my suntan on a beach somewhere with you. It’s the same sun but it looks much better before all this happened.
In Joan’s letter she asked me if I had any objections to her naming her next baby, if it is a boy after me. Of course I told her no and I feel very honored that she should want to do so.
I am reading “Gone with the Wind” now and I like it very much. I don’t know why I never read it before. I am very thankful that I like to read and am given the opportunity to read. It makes the time pass faster and takes my mind off my troubles to a certain extent. I have also been given a Bible which I read every day.
I have just finished eating supper, “y ж и н” as it is spelled in Russian. I get more than enough to eat and always have tea to drink. In fact I am drinking tea and smoking as I write this letter.
The day is almost finished and after I finish this letter I will read a while and then go to sleep. I like to see night come for that means one more day less to wait. Always before I hated to see each day pass for that meant one day older.
Barbara, I would have written sooner but I kept thinking that each day I would get a letter from you so I kept waiting. I won’t wait so long next time.
Darling, you know that I love you more than anything else in the world. I cannot find words to tell you how much. I miss you more than I can say and hope and pray that you are getting along all right.
Tell your mother to take care of herself and also to take care of you for me.
I often wonder if Eck misses me or if he has forgotten me already. I do miss him. Has he been good?
Well Darling, I will stop for this time since I cannot think of anything else to write. Take care of yourself and remember that I love you with all of my heart and I am always sending you…
PS. I received a letter from Jean which I will answer soon.30
In a subsequent letter to Barbara, Frank wrote:
Darling, you say that I sound very dejected in my letters. You must make for some allowances for my being in prison. It isn’t the best atmosphere in the world for writing gay letters. I don’t like being here and I guess it reflects in my letters. Also Darling, there is no doubt in my mind that I will be found guilty in the trial. It will be more of a trial for determining the degree of guilt and the degree of punishment. This also reflects in my letters I suppose. Mine isn’t a bright future no matter how you look at it. I only tell you this so you may be prepared for anything that might happen. Darling, I know you worry about me and I wish there was something I could do to set your mind at ease. But I won’t lie to you and try to make things appear better than they are.31
He was prepared for the worst, and so was his wife. When the trial turned into an anti-American show, but Dad was able to escape with his life, he began to second-guess himself in his journal:
I will never know whether or not I did right by giving any evidence at all. I would have been convicted anyway on the evidence that they had. I felt bad about telling them anything at all and I am very thankful that I knew very little if any of anything of a strategic nature. It seems to me the primary interest of the court was to point out to the world what had happened and to use it as much as possible to put the US in an embarrassing situation….
It seems to me that the prosecution did a good job of trying and convicting the United States and sentencing me because the US wasn’t available…. All I can say about the trial is that it was a very hard three days for me. I was very keyed up all during this time and had to ask the doctor for sleeping powder at night…. I was both pleased and disappointed with the verdict. I was pleased that it wasn’t the death penalty or a longer period of time. I was displeased for the number of years I received because it seemed fairly clear to me that the case was presented in such a way to make the US appear the guilty party and I was only a “tool.” …Well I can’t complain because I thought it would be the firing squad for me for sure….32
Without specifically addressing the matter of his controversial statement immediately before his sentencing, he wrote:
I was asked during the investigation if I would do the same thing again had I had it to do over again. I said yea I would if it were necessary for the defense of my country. In answer to a question of whether or not I thought it (my flight) was wrong, I replied that I did not consider it wrong if it was necessary for the defense of the United States, but that I did think it was wrong if it was done without the necessity of defending the U.S. I said I believed such flights as mine were not only right but necessary if it saved the destruction of the people of the US and their property. Any nation in my opinion could do such things for their protection and not commit a crime. If they are done in the name of necessity when it isn’t necessary then it is a different matter altogether and should be condemned.
I previously thought my flight was necessary at the time it was made. Now I don’t know what to think. Of course I only get news from a Communist source now, but if the USSR said that they would accept any control if only the West would accept disarmament then there is no excuse for the arms race continuing. If the US does not accept this then I will begin wondering what is going on. With disarmament there would be no need for such flights for no country would be a threat to another but if all nations continue to build bigger and better weapons then flights such as mine will become the accepted thing and the only crime will be to be caught….33
Especially after returning to the United States and seeing how the media had treated him, my father began to see himself as a scapegoat who was used to take the blame for a policy pursued by the political establishment.
Ruminating on his role in the failed summit, he said on the tapes:
I knew the incident was to blame but I didn’t consider myself to blame because I assumed that whoever gave word that the flight was to take place was the responsible party. They should have taken this into consideration. If they didn’t want this to happen or take the chance of this happening, then it was their responsibility to not take any chances. It was their fault, not mine. OK, I’m the instrument that caused it but I’m not responsible for… this Cold War business. I don’t pretend to be an intellectual… but when someone comes up and tells you you’ve disrupted possible peace in the world it can sort of get to you.34
Facing a decade of confinement, Dad thought about escaping. The idea often occupied his dreams. So did suicide.
“Tried to think of ways to [escape],” he said on his tapes. “But it sure seemed like a hopeless situation. In fact, many times [I] got real despondent.” He continued:
Most people would have a little difficulty killing themselves. You can think about it: Boy, if this happened, I’d want to kill myself. But it’s a difficult decision to make when you come right down to it. And a good way to do it would be to escape and be shot. This would be one form of suicide. I don’t see how you could get far enough to be shot.
During the trial I thought about it because I thought maybe I had an opportunity to run and get shot. They let me outside the court building, right in downtown Moscow, setting on the bench. There was always the hope that the person would live but it wouldn’t have surprised me if they’d given me a death sentence….35
Internalizing his words, I tried to relate to his difficult circumstances. The stress of the trial, having faced the possibility of a death sentence, the lack of support from Barbara, and the uncertainty of how long he would be in prison certainly took a toll on him. Through his writing you could see when he was depressed and when he was hopeful. I rode that roller coaster with him. By reading and copying the letters, I had a sense that I was learning things though my father that I otherwise never would have learned. It was like he was helping me understand what he was going through. I found myself thinking what it would be like to be in his shoes. For me this was like my own type of therapy.
Once incarcerated at Lubyanka, Frank composed a letter to Barbara:
5 September 1960
My Dearest Wife,
It has been only a week since I saw you last but it seems so much longer. When I heard that you were gone I all at once felt all alone. I do not know the words to tell you what it meant to me to see you.
I have not been moved to another prison yet. I suppose it won’t be very long until I am moved. I would like to get it over with and get settled as much as I can under the circumstances.
I will enclose a list of the things you bought for me. I tried on all the clothes and they fit good. I have receipts for the money and the watch. All these things will be given to me when I leave here and get to the permanent prison.
So far my life has not changed much. I am still in the same cell but I have more time on my hands since there is no interrogation and preparation for a trial. I am glad all that is over. I hope I never have anything like that to go through again.
I am very depressed today. I don’t know why so today more than any other day but that is the way it is. Just the thoughts of spending ten years in prison is getting to me. I am sure it would be the same if it were only for five years or even one year. The way I feel now I would much rather have stayed with the airplane and died there than spend any time in a prison. I know it is hard for you to understand this but you have never faced ten years in prison.
You may say I won’t have to spend ten years in prison, that by behaving good I will get out sooner. That might knock off three years. Or you may think that there will be a pardon or some kind or exchange of prisoners, or that maybe something will happen through diplomatic channels to get me set free. I realize that maybe any of these things could happen but I cannot count on them. There is only one thing that is sure and that is my sentence is for ten years.
I doubt if I will ever be able to go to a zoo—that is if I ever get out of here—without having the desire to set all the animals free. I have never, before this, thought very much on the subject but I think all men and animals were born to be free. To take away one’s freedom is worse than to take one’s life, for death itself is a form of freedom.
Wasn’t it Patrick Henry who said “Give me liberty or give me death”? He wasn’t even speaking of his own personal liberty then—only of the liberty of a nation in which he was free at the time. How much more would he have said if he was locked in a cell at the time?
Darling, I probably shouldn’t be writing all this to you. You have enough trouble of your own, because of me, and here I am trying to make you share my own personal moods and depressions. It is good to get these thoughts out of my mind though and writing to you is somewhat like talking to you.
No matter what happens to me or how long I stay here there is one thing that will never change, one thing I can depend on to last much longer than ten years, and one thing to keep my spirits up even though they do get low at times. That one thing is my love for you. You know that I love you very much and prison or nothing else except you yourself can ever change that.
Please try to tell your mother how very grateful I am that she accompanied you here and how much I enjoyed seeing her. She has been more like a mother to me than a mother-in-law and I love her like a mother. Tell her for me that as long as you are with her I know you are in safe hands.
Tell your sister Nell and her husband Fred that I think of them very often and miss them much. Tell them to take care of Tammy Gay. She will be a big girl when I see her again. Don’t let her forget her uncle Gary. Tell Fred that he and I will go fishing again one of these days. When we do I hope we have as much luck as we had before. That was a good trip.
Well Darling, I guess that is about all for this time except once again I want to say, I love you very much. I wish our life could have been different but it is too late now to change what has happened. Don’t worry about me for I will be okay. I will have my moods but that is all they are, they don’t last too long. I know I will be okay as long as I know that you are. Take care of yourself and continue to love me and everything will work out all right.
P.S. My address is the same as before until further notice.36
The prisoner was settling into his new cell at Vladimir by the time he received his next letter from his parents:
Sept. 12, 1960
My Dear Son,
If I had known you could receive letters we would have written several before this. We just recd your letter. You heard them tell us while there that you could write and rec. one letter a month. That is why I haven’t written. Has Barbara wrote you. I talked to her on the phone Fri evening and she wanted to know if I had heard. She said she hadn’t heard anything but would call me when she heard. We didn’t know if you had moved or not. Sure hope we can hear from you once a month any way. It’s so far to where she lives and we have no way to talk with her only by phone.
You can never know how we hated to leave you there. I’m so glad you got the testament. Read it and study it well and you can find great comfort from its teaching. The book of Acts tells how you are to be saved and the other books tell us how to live a Christian life. The first four books tell the teaching of Jesus so it’s all the best book written if possible tell others of its teaching it would[n’t] hurt anyone to learn the truths found in it.
We will do our best to stay well and pray that we can all be united again as soon as we can. God is our help and without him we can do nothing. So take him with you where ever you go. And pray that he will give you strength to stay well and keep you safe till we meet again.
Daddy plans to try to see Mr. K. [Khrushchev] in N.Y. around the 20th of this month. Don’t worry too much. Everyone thinks everything will turn out OK. We sent two men home that was sentenced 10 and 20 years soon after their trial and maybe you won’t have to stay the full time. Every one is for you and no one can be too far against you. Just remember how we have taught you to live and every thing will turn out all right.
I don’t think Grandpa realizes the trouble. He always asks when you will be home. He can’t remember things very long and asks over and over.
We have thanked every one that has helped us. We will thank them again.
Who has the pictures now? Does the lawyer have them yet? I wondered if you would get to see them.
We didn’t have any trouble on our way back. Every one was so nice to us. I think air travel is the best way to go. It’s so pretty up among the clouds.
If you need any thing, please let us know of if we can do anything. You know we would do any thing for you we could any time. So do let us know if we can see about anything or do anything any time. Try not to worry about us and remember every one is thinking and praying for you. May God bless all.
Write when you can. Everyone loves you. Let us know if you move and where to write.
Soon it became clear that Frank’s budding friendship with Zigurd—whom he called “one of the finest people I have ever known”38—helped keep his mind occupied and his spirits up, as he explained in a letter to his wife:
21 September 1960
Dearest Barbara,
I am now at my permanent place of residence. I have been moved to a prison about two and one-half hours from Moscow by car at a city called Vladimir. I will remain here I suppose until my three years of prison are finished and then be transferred to a work camp.
The conditions here are very similar to the conditions in Moscow except I have a cell mate. He is a very nice person. He is thirty three years old and speaks English fairly well. He also speaks German and Russian. I don’t think I could have done better if I had chosen him myself. He also is not a Russian.
He is a very interesting person to talk to and helps me a lot when I need any translating done. He is also helping me to learn Russian which I am sure is going to be a big job for him because it is very difficult for me.
I have been here a little over a week now and am getting into the routine. I don’t think it is going to be too bad. Of course it could be a lot better but one cannot expect too much from a prison.
It sure is nice having someone to talk to. My cell mate says he hasn’t spoken much English for the past eight years and says that as soon as he has had some practice it will come back to him. He has improved since I have been here and I think speaks good English. I wish I could speak Russian as good as he speaks English.
There is also a radio in the cell which helps a lot. Of course I cannot understand what is said but the music is very good. It is especially good after the long hours that I spent in solitary confinement in Moscow.
I will be allowed to write four letters a month, maybe two to you, one to my parents and one to a different sister each month. Things will be more or less routine and there will be very little for me to write about. I am sure my letters will soon become boring.
I suppose I should be getting a letter from you soon. I am anxiously awaiting one. It has been a long time since I heard from you. I would also like to know what arrangements you made about cigarettes, etc.
Darling they offered to let me wear my ring and watch but it is against the rules so I decided not to take them. I might lose them so I will give them to you to keep for me when I see you again. Time doesn’t mean very much in prison and a watch would probably keep reminding me not only of the time but of the time remaining. I try to forget about that.
I am allowed to receive one package from you a month. I won’t need too much but there are a few things which would come in handy. I would like to have an English dictionary, a couple of pipes and some pipe tobacco, cigarette paper for rolling cigarettes in case I run out at any time, chap stick of lips, a double edge razor with blades, shaving cream (tube), and after shave cream (not liquid), also a shaving brush. In the food line I could use some dried fruit (apples, peaches, etc.), some [Borden’s] Eagle Brand milk (cans).
If I need anything else as time goes on I will let you know. Don’t send too much at one time for there is very little space to keep it. I will let you know about other foods later.
Darling, I know you worry about me a lot but it is needless. The treatment is good and the food, although not as good as I was getting before, is plentiful and I won’t be losing weight.
When you have time take some snapshots of yourself, your mother, Nell’s family, and Eck and send them to me. I don’t want to forget what all of you look like. No danger of that though for I think of all of you too often.
Darling—take care of yourself and don’t worry about me. I will be all right. Where I am there is very little that can happen to me. I am safer here than in an airplane. Think of it that way.
Remember that I love you with all of my heart and I miss you very much. It seems like a long time but it will pass and then we can be together again and maybe find that there is happiness left in the world for us.
Bye for now.
After a bleak Christmas—made slightly cheerier by the ninety-two Christmas cards he received from the San Francisco area, thanks to the kind suggestion of the influential columnist Herb Caen—my father allowed himself to believe that the new Kennedy administration might push for his release. He wrote in his journal:
On New Year’s Day my cell mate translated the toast of Khrushchev to me. In it he stated that with the going of the old year and the government of the US and the coming of the new he thought it best to forget the U-2 Incident so that there might be better relations between the two countries. This toast of Khrushchev’s set my hopes going. I kept thinking that it would be very hard for both countries to forget the incident with me still in prison. My cell mate was also very optimistic. He has always said I wouldn’t be here too long.40
In a letter to Barbara dated January 16, 1961, he said, “I have great hopes of something very important happening soon. I don’t want to build up your hopes but it is entirely possible that I could be released in the near future.”41
Toward the end of the month, in a letter to his parents, he said, “I heard some excellent news on the radio this morning. The two Americans from the [R]B-47 have been released. It could have only been better if I had been with them but our cases were a little different. I am very happy for them and their families and I wish them the best. I personally think my chances of being released early are very good in view of the policy the new government has adopted.”42
At about the same time, Oliver was writing to his son about the same news. Their letters crossed in transit. “If you could have been with them,” he said, “my heart would have been so glad.”43
When Frank learned that the Kennedy White House was doing nothing publicly to push for his release, his spirits sank. But this was not his only reason for despair. He was desperately worried about his wife and beginning to wonder about the future of his marriage, which could be seen in his twelfth letter to Barbara:
March 1, 1961
Dearest Barbara,
Today they returned a letter to me that I had mailed to you on the 23rd of February. It seems I am not supposed to tell you about my cellmate. This means that you won’t get a letter from me mailed in the month of February. I only wrote the one and it was returned and this one is to replace it.
I guess you know that I haven’t received any mail from you since the twenty sixth of January. The one I received then was written by you on the ninth of January. I would like to know what is wrong that you aren’t writing. If you don’t want to write just say so and then I will not expect letters from you. As it is, each day I am waiting for a letter and when it doesn’t come then I am very disappointed. Don’t you think my situation is bad enough without you making it worse?
When I don’t hear from you for a long time I get very despondent and start imagining all sorts of things. You could be dead for all I know. I think your mother would have enough consideration for me to tell me if anything were wrong with you. I hope so anyway.
If it weren’t for my mother and sisters I would not have received any mail at all in Feb. Thank goodness they care enough for me to write.
I guess you thought I stood a chance of being released with the RB 47 boys. I also thought this but we were mistaken. Things don’t look near so bright any more. In fact it will probably be a long time before chances will be as good again as they were then. If they hadn’t been here then maybe it would have been me.
I would like for you to start sending some magazines again also some books. Send anything you think I would like. I haven’t received any of the magazines they told me they would give me starting in January.
Maybe you could get the Embassy to do this and save yourself a lot of trouble and also custom duties. Also you could have the Embassy cut the number of cartons of cigarettes to three a month. I have accumulated several cartons and don’t need so many.
I would also like to have some more pictures if you have any. I only have the two that were taken at Nell’s in November.
Why hasn’t Nell answered my letter? Do you know? Tell her and Fred I said hello and hope they are fine. I’ll bet the children are growing. I know I wouldn’t recognize Tammy Gay.
Barbara, I want you to send my father one thousand dollars as soon after the receipt of this letter as possible. I am sure you have it available.
It was a very big disappointment to me to learn that Kennedy stated in one of his press conferences that my situation had not been discussed when the SU and US officials discussed the release of the other two pilots. I don’t know why but I expected them to discuss it whether or not anything was done about it.
Darling, I want you to write more often. I have only received eight letters from you since you left Moscow in August. That is eight letters in seven months. Not a very good average no matter how a person looks at it. I expected and wanted you to write more without my having to ask you.
It certainly appears that you don’t think very much of me if the number of letters are any judge. I can’t imagine what you could be doing that occupies so much of your time so that you can not spare thirty minutes or so a week to write. I can only think that you don’t want to write because I know you have the time.
I want you to be sure and start numbering each letter so that I can tell if any of them are lost or missing. Maybe there was one on the plane that crashed in Belgium. Only you know that.
Barbara, I am very sorry to have had to say so much about letters but I am very worried. You apparently don’t realize how much mail from you means to me. The receipt of a letter is the only bright spot in my life. I am not begging you to write. I only want letters from you if you want to write them. If you do not want to write me then please let me know so that I won’t worry when no letters arrive.
I guess that is about all for now. Please answer soon and remember I love you very much and can’t help worrying when I don’t hear from you.
P.S. I don’t know when this will be mailed. No one has been around to pick up mail for the last two days. I have asked someone to come today but so far no one.
P.S.S. I also need some stationery.44
Around this time, he addressed his feelings about Barbara in his journal:
I was almost sick with worry and I was extremely nervous and not able to sleep at all because my mind would not relax. (My cell mate put up with much during this time). It turned out that I had no need to be worried at all. On March 11th I received a letter from my wife with no mention at all of the fact that she had waited 45 days. (I know there was no letter in between because I had asked her and she said she would send me a copy of Kennedy’s inauguration speech and she enclosed it in this February 21st letter. One month and one day after the speech was in the paper she mailed it to me. If she had written earlier she would have sent it for it was dated Jan. 20). She, in her letter, started as if she had only written the week before, mentioned she had been visiting relatives in North Carolina and had found someone, for the first time since May, to bowl and play golf with. Her letter jumped from one subject to another as if she couldn’t think of anything to write or as if she were only performing a very unpleasant duty and anything would do to fill up the pages.
I must admit that I was very angry. That is putting it mildly. There is no excuse what-so-ever for her not writing more during this period of time. It only takes a few minutes to write a letter and let someone know that a person is all right.
Not counting the two letters I received before she came to Moscow in August I have received nine letters from her. Total I have received eleven that is an average of one a month. If the number of letters are any indication of the amount of love she has for me then we should have been divorced long ago.
Speaking of divorce, I am at the present time firmly determined to divorce her when I return to the States. It should have been done in fifty seven but for some reason I did not do it then. I don’t know why now that I think back on it. I thought at the time that I loved her too much to let her go but now I don’t know. I have never liked divorces and I hate the thoughts of getting one but I know that I can never make the kind of life I want with any woman who, while drawing her husband’s pay which he has sacrificed several months of his freedom, so far, does not have enough consideration for him to write a few letters which takes very little time when one considers the fact that she is not working and has nothing to do.
I do not mind her enjoying herself while I am here as long as she conducts herself as a wife should. That is all right but I did not expect her to become so engrossed in seeking pleasure and forgetfulness that she forgets that she had a husband.
She has caused me since January, extreme mental suffering. Several times I became so nervous that my hands shake so much that my cell mate wanted to call the doctor. I wouldn’t let him and it would pass after about thirty minutes. The things she has done since we have been married and which now I have plenty of time to remember and think about have made this last year almost unlivable. There have been numerous times that I have thought about stopping all these thoughts for good.
I can never have a future with her because the past will always be between us. I fooled myself for a while but I can not do so in the future. I want a happy home with children. I can never have it with her. There is nothing else to do. I only hope I am able to be firm about this when I am free. I cannot do anything at the present time because I foolishly left her with complete power of attorneys and she can take all I have.45
By the time these anguished words first assaulted me, I was a grown man who had known love and heartbreak, and I was able to experience my father’s despair over his dying relationship as someone who understood the urge to try to save something that was dying. After all, love is a powerful emotion that affects people in different ways. In prison, Dad needed the emotional support of his wife through correspondence. But Barbara was having a difficult time handling the stress, notoriety, and front-page headlines, so she dealt with it in her own self-destructive way. Reading the letters and the journal, I could see how Dad was trying to convince himself that things would work out, but eventually he came to the realization that he could not repair the damage that had been done.
Rumors apparently concerning the pilot’s troubled marriage reached his superiors long before the shoot-down, which the Prettyman inquiry addressed. A man whose identity was redacted but who had direct oversight of Powers, which may have been Colonel William M. Shelton, said, “I am confident in my own mind that this did not affect his flying.”46
Trying to occupy his time with reading, rug-making, and following the moves of an important chess tournament in the Soviet media, Dad frequently played chess against Zigurd, who tutored him on the finer points of the game. “He beat me one time blindfolded,” he said on his tapes. “Would sit with his back to the chess board and say, move such and such to here [and] I’d tell him where I’d moved. Still beat me.”47
Prison life required many adjustments and offered few distractions, but Dad quickly learned that he could have had it much worse.
US Interrogator: From what you saw in the prison, would you say you were treated better, worse, or about the same as the other prisoners?
Powers: Well I thought better. But I asked them about this. I told them I didn’t want to be treated any better than anyone else, and they said that they have three—what they call—three regimes, a severe regime, a normal regime, and a light regime. And they said that I was on the light regime and they treated all the prisoners who were on the light regime the same way. Now I don’t know whether this was true or not. But supposedly the prisoners on the light regime receive better food, but you couldn’t prove that by me. Two hours’ walk a day instead of one, get to keep your hair, they didn’t shave your head every 10 days or clip it all off, and you could shave daily if you had your own razor blades—and they let me keep razor blades in the cell, which surprised me. I heard that on the severe regime the people get 30 minutes’ walk a day—well, it’s a punishment—this severe. The normal prisoner received one hour[’s] walk a day, their hair was shaved off every ten days, the food was supposedly worse, but I really don’t know….48
In a journal entry, he explained his daily routine:
It is the rule for all prisoners; get up at six o’clock in the morning. I haven’t been a good keeper of this rule because I do not get up unless someone wakes me and it has been very seldom that anyone has awakened me in the mornings. I am usually up between six and seven but have sometimes slept longer. I don’t like to do this but if they want me to get up all they have to do is say so. I suppose the reason I sleep late in the mornings is that most of the time I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep at night. It seems that the minute I prepare for sleep it is an indication for my mind to become filled with thoughts. There have been many times that I do not get to sleep before two or three o’clock in the morning. The average time I get to sleep would probably be around midnight when the guards change.
My cell mate does not wake me up. He lets me sleep and usually takes advantage of my being in bed and his having more room to move about in, to do his morning exercises. He also cleans the floor which takes two or three minutes. I feel bad about this because he does it all the time but even when I wake up he tells me to stay in bed so I won’t be in his way while he is cleaning the floor. He says it is part of his exercise and won’t let me do it even if I am up.
Depending on the time, we either go to the toilet before or after breakfast. Most of the time it is before. There is only cold water there and that wakes me up completely. I wash from the waist up each morning in the ice cold water.
Usually we do not have time to shave before breakfast and if we do we usually do not get hot water until breakfast so most of the time we shave after breakfast.
Breakfast is served usually between seven-thirty and eight o’clock and consists of either a soup or a porridge. There are usually two kinds of soups for breakfast, either fish soup or a vegetable soup made primarily from dried peas etc. There are several different kinds of porridge, cream of wheat, barley, millet, wheat, and oats. Each morning we are offered one of the above mentioned items. We also receive the bread ration for the day. I only take half my ration because I do not eat bread as much as everyone else seems to do here. I am also able to get a better bread occasionally from the commissary. There are two kinds of bread given each day, rye and whole wheat.
After breakfast and washing our dishes we usually have about one hour and one-half before walk. We shave and I either spend the time until the walk reading or studying Russian. Many months went by when I was so down hearted that, I am sorry to say, I did not study at all, I only read. Lately since July I have been spending an average of more than two hours a day on my studying but haven’t made a tremendous amount of progress. I used to be a fairly good student but since I have been in prison I cannot seem to concentrate and have a lot of trouble in remembering the words which it is necessary to remember in order to learn a language. I do not only have the trouble in Russian but many times when I am reading unless it is an exceptionally good book I sometimes have to reread pages more than once for my mind wanders to other things and I completely lose the meaning of the words that I am reading. Prison in my case is not conducive to good studying.
Usually about ten o’clock we go for a walk. My cell mate and I are allowed two hours a day. We usually spend two hours in the summer and one in winter. The court yard we walk in is about twenty by twenty-five feet and we walk in a circle. In summer we took a chess board with us and had a game of chess in the fresh air and the sunshine. In the winter we walk one hour only stopping for a few minutes to feed the pigeons if we have any bread.
After the walk we are brought back to the cell where we either read or study until lunch time which is usually about twelve thirty. This is the best meal of the day and consists of an excellent soup, a little light on meat though, and either a plate of cabbage, noodles, rice, manna, or mashed potatoes, and 250 grams of milk (it used to be 350 grams but was cut recently also the bread ration was cut).
After lunch we now take a nap of an hour or two. Before when we were making envelopes we spent the time working and also spent part of the morning working. Now we have no work to do. After the nap it is read or study until supper which is about six thirty. This is the worst meal of the day and usually consists only of potatoes.
I very seldom eat the supper that is given. My cell mate and I are lucky in that we receive help from outside. He gets some smoked meat each month that we use to supplement the meals. He also gets about a kilo of butter. We can buy margarine here but it doesn’t take the place of butter.
After Supper we take another trip to the toilet and then either write letters, read or study until ten o’clock when it is time for bed.
At night there is always a light on in the cell. I have not slept in a dark room for over eighteen months. I usually put a towel or a handkerchief over my eyes. My cell mate most of the time goes right to sleep but I lay awake. This is sometimes the worst time of the day especially when I have some kind of bad news from home a little of which I constantly seem to have at all times.
It isn’t a very pleasant life but it is much better than I expected and I am sure most Americans think conditions are worse than they are. I have never seen a prisoner maltreated here which is more than can be said of some of our prisons especially in the southern part of the U.S.49
One of the few regular distractions was his ability to go to a prison room periodically and watch Soviet -made movies, but he quickly soured on the predictable socialist themes. “It was usually pretty low class, what we would call a B movie. Story usually set on a collective farm, with some pretty girl who always sings really nicely.”50
As the letters from Barbara began to arrive with greater frequency in the spring of 1961, Frank tried to stay positive. But he was a man who was clearly struggling with the same sort of suspicions that had provided tension for the entirety of his marriage.
30 April 1961
My Dearest Barbara,
Today is the thirtieth of April and I won’t be able to mail this letter until after the holidays (May 1st + 2nd), but since I received this letter this afternoon I have been in a pretty good mood and thought I would start an answer anyway. Your letters certainly do a lot to cheer me up.
Since we neither one know how long we are to be separated it might be a good idea if you did buy a house. That way, instead of paying rent you could be paying for a house that we could probably sell later and maybe get the money back that would be completely lost as rent.
If I thought I would be home in the next few months I would advise against it but as it is it may be years so I suppose we should act as if it were going to be for nine more. I certainly hope it won’t be but things do not look good.
The house you were telling me about sounds pretty good. Of course I have to rely on your judgment. Just make sure, for one thing, that the house you choose is high enough so that there is no danger of floods, etc. like you had there a few months ago.
It would be nice if I could see the plans of the house and grounds but since it takes so long for mail it would probably be best to go ahead without waiting for an answer from me.
I am sure Fred would be glad to help you and since he works for a Real Estate Agency he should know what to look for and how to choose and also if the price was reasonable.
You say that the man’s equity is $7000. You should have enough with the money received from the sale of the Buick and what I had in the checking account to take care of that. Try not to touch the Calif. Saving account. Also you should have saved quite a lot from your allowance in a year’s time so that there should be no need to put us in a tight place.
Maybe the house you mentioned is already sold. If not use your own judgment but be careful.
Does the house have a basement? What kind of heat? Just give me a complete rundown on everything. One other thing—buy it in both our names. Oh yes, how much property tax a year?
Who is the doctor you are going to who gave you the information about the house? Does he work at the State hospital? Also does he have anything to do with the house you were telling me about?
Well—just do as you think best. There is nothing I can do to help from here. You are on your own. I know of no one who I think could show more judgment in such things than you. Anything you do I am sure will be all right with me.
I am starting again where I left off last night. It is now the first of May and I have been in prison a year. It isn’t a happy occasion so I would not be celebrating even if I were able to.
Darling, I hope you will not get angry at what I [am] about to say but I feel I must say it anyway. You have now experienced a year’s separation. I know that it has been a very long, lonely, and difficult time for you. Probably more than for me since you are faced every day with temptation that I in my position do not have to worry about. In the face of these temptations and the fact that we may be separated for a much longer time, are you sure that you want to continue being married in name only? Have you met anyone who may already or in the future come to mean more to you than a husband who cannot be with you?
I want you to be honest to yourself and to me when you answer these questions. I want you to take into consideration that we very likely will be separated for several more years. Maybe not if there were an improvement in the international situation. There are in my opinion two ways that my situation could improve. One is for the US Government to strive for an improvement in international relations; the other would be for the Government to negotiate diplomatically on my behalf. It is quite obvious they have done neither so as I said before there is a very good possibility of our separation being for an extended length of time.
Darling, I am not thinking so much of myself as I am of you when I ask you to consider these things. You are still young and it isn’t fair to you for me to ask you to waste the best years of your life in waiting for a husband who may be gone for a long time. I tell you truthfully Barbara that I would understand if you did not want to wait and I would not think bad of you if you decided not to do so. On the other hand I would never like to reproach you after being released for something which I am unable to forgive my wife. The consequences would be obvious but only delayed un-necessarily with disadvantages to both but mostly to you.
I don’t want you to get the impression that I want you to do anything. That is very far from my mind and heart. The only thing is if the conditions are to be then it would be much better to either head that off or take steps that would be advantageous to both of us without making a bad situation worse.
I am sure you know that I love you and I am sure you realize I would never have married you if I thought I could not trust you. So don’t think I am accusing for I am not. I only want you to know how I feel and I only want what is fair and right for you. Ours is far from being a normal situation and I do not feel that I have the right to make you think you are bound to me if you felt you would be happier free.
If I didn’t feel I could trust you I would never agree to buying a house. I want you to know that I love you more now than before if that is possible. I know I will love you always even if I am required to stay here ninety more years instead of nine and it is because I love you so much that I want you to be happy.
As I said before, please don’t be angry with me for stating what I feel. I only want to be fair with you in all respects.
Well. To get back to answering your letter, I have only read one of the sixteen books that you sent. I haven’t received them yet but expect and hope they arrive about the sixteenth of this month when I usually receive the package from the Embassy. Don’t worry about the selection of future books; the important thing is that I have something to read so that I can pass the time easier.
You ask about the temperature in Moscow in the hottest summer months. All I can go by is last summer’s experience. July was uncomfortably hot. June was very nice a little cold around the latter part of May but comfortable. Around the middle of August it began getting cool again as you know. The sun has been shining a lot during the last two or three weeks of April. It snowed a little on the first of May (yesterday) but when the sun is shinny [sic] it is nice but rather cool in the shade or when it is cloudy.
Well, Darling, I guess that is all for this time. Thanks for bringing up the buying of a house. I guess we should have considered it earlier but up until lately I thought that we might have the opportunity to do it together.
Bye for this time. Remember Barbara, I love you very much and want your happiness above all else. Take care of yourself and tell all I send my love,
With his marriage crumbling, Dad was confronted with a news report that left him angry and feeling even more powerless than usual.
4 May 1961
Dear Mom & Dad,
I was quite shocked when I read the news clipping you sent in your number 9 letter, (which you forgot to number), written on April 10th.
You seemed worry that it was true even though in the article you said you didn’t believe it. Well you can set your mind at rest on that account. I do not intend to stay in the Soviet Union when I am released. I have never said to anyone that I intended to do so. I am a citizen of the United States and am proud to be one. I might not like all the policies of the US government but I feel sure there are many millions of people in the States who disagree with them also.
I cannot imagine where the correspondent John Mossman got his information unless he invented it himself. You may rest assured that I will return home, where I belong and want to be, as soon as I am released. Remaining here has never entered my mind.
I noticed in the article that “John Mossman quoted no source for his story.” Apparently he had none.
Once again I want to state that I do not intend to remain in the S.U. when I am released. No one has asked me if I wanted to and I don’t even know whether or not I would be allowed to.
As far as Barbara coming to Russia I have heard nothing about it. She said earlier that when I was transferred to a work camp and if I were allowed to see her often, she would want to come and live near the camp until my sentence was up. If I could see her often enough to make it worth while then I would allow it. But you can rest assured that even if it were allowed, we both would return as soon as my sentence was up.
Don’t worry about my doing anything or giving any cause for my country to doubt me. It looks as if this British correspondent is trying, for some reason I don’t know, to tell the people that I have renounced my country. I would never do this. I was born an American and intend to die an American.
You wrote on the back of your envelope “Remember what Patrick Henry said.” He is remembered, much to his credit, for what he said. It looks as if I will be remembered, much to my discredit, for what some correspondent writes even though there is not one word of truth in what he wrote.
I wish there was some way to force him to disclose where he got his information. I know my friends and family will not believe this but probably many Americans will. I certainly hope not.
You asked me to let you know if your note was censored. All mail coming and going is censored but there has never been anything marked or cut out of your letters since I have been in Vladimir. I think all prisons all over the world censor mail so that there can be no plans of escape etc.
I suppose Jean has her new baby boy by now. I am very anxious to hear about it. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Everything here is the same. The weather is becoming very nice. Still a little cool when the sun isn’t shining and we had a little snow on the morning of the first of May. Even though John Mossman said I would be released, I am still occupying the same cell in the same prison.
Well I guess that is all for this time. Please don’t worry about the article in the paper. It isn’t true. In fact I have been wondering just how much that is written in papers can be believed. Very little apparently.
P.S. This is primarily a letter to you but you may use it to refute the story if you think it necessary.52
Emphasizing the point in a letter to his sisters Jess and Jan, Frank said, “When I am released I intend to return home even if I have to walk and try to swim the Atlantic…. I have no idea what the purpose of such a lie could be, but it will be believed by many American people much to my future disadvantage.”53
When the summit meeting between Kennedy and Khrushchev produced no movement on his issue, Dad’s dashed hopes could be felt in his June 15 letter to Barbara: “Darling, I am sorry that I wrote that I might be released after the meeting between K+K. I cannot help grasping at each little ray of hope and amplifying it into a beacon of optimism but I can keep from telling you and maybe raise your hopes also…. One thing that makes me pretty sad is if nothing happens as a result of this meeting then I have very little chance of being released at all. If a meeting between the two will not do it then what will?”54
Around this time he became aware of his father’s communicating with Rudolf Abel. “I know nothing will come of the negotiations,” he wrote to Barbara on August 10, 1961, “because as far as I know, Abel is not a Soviet citizen and why should the SU agree to an exchange for a non citizen? It is just that my father is grasping at straws.”55
Frank kept writing to Barbara, not realizing the level of her distress. He was painfully aware of his wife’s alcohol problem, but he did not know she was dealing with significant psychological problems. The news of her commitment back in Georgia left Frank reeling, as his journal entry of October 14, 1961, made clear:
According to the letter [from Mrs. Brown, Barbara’s mother] she has been under a great mental strain. My mother-in-law stated that when my wife was drinking that she [my wife] could not stand her mother and would have to go somewhere out of her sight…. I am almost completely in the dark…. I can only assume that alcohol has a lot to do with it…. I cannot understand how such a drastic action could be taken without consulting me…. I am worried to death and feel so helpless that I don’t know what to do.56
When Barbara wrote to him without mentioning the situation, Dad recognized it as part of a larger pattern of dishonesty. In a letter dated November 1, 1961, he said:
I expected you to be honest with me and tell me what has been happening since the latter part of September but you never mentioned it at all. You seem to have made a habit of forgetting to tell me many of the things I have a right as your husband to know. Even though I am in a prison in another country, the fact remains that I am still your husband and cannot help but be interested in all you do and all that happened to you. When you do not tell me things and I find out from other people I cannot help but wonder how many things there are I should know that neither you nor other people tell me…. I will not hesitate to get a divorce when I return to the States if your conduct has been such that it merits such an action.57
After her next letter, in which she admitted to the commitment to the psychological ward, Dad wrote back, having caught her lying about the timing of her release. Despite continuing to profess his love for her, he wrote:
I am not proud of you at all. I know something was wrong for a long time but I didn’t expect you to go to such extents that legal commitment to a hospital would be necessary…. Now maybe you realize why I said I don’t have the confidence in our marriage that I had before. Can you blame me? Well, I have decided that the only way you can help yourself is to stop drinking completely or you will end up back in the same place for the same reason…. Barbara, between now and the time I return home, no matter how long it is, I do not expect to hear that you have drank a single drink. I am not asking you this time. I am telling you. If I ever hear you are drinking again the first act I will do when I return to the States is get a divorce…. Now it is up to you to decide whether or not I mean more to you than drink. I hope it isn’t a hard decision for you to make and I hope I mean more to you than drowning your sorrows….58
Addressing the matter in his journal, he wrote:
I fear that she and I will never be able to live together again. I love her very much and I do want us to have a happy life together but I do not intend to remain married to a woman who has not had enough respect for herself or for me to live as a woman should live when placed under the circumstances we have. It is my opinion that she will pay no attention to what I said even though I told her it was either drink or me. I feel that she thinks she will be able to charm me into forgiveness when we are together again…. She seems to think she can do anything she wants to do as long as she can get away with it.59
Even as he tried to plan for some sort of future, with or without Barbara, my father began angling to improve the conditions of his confinement. He would soon be eligible for a transfer to a work camp, which would allow him to be out in the fresh air.
“This camp business has me worried,” he wrote in his journal.
Here in the prison I have been relatively isolated. I have contact only with my cell mate. In a camp it is my understanding that all the prisoners were free to mingle and more or less govern themselves in the camp. Of course there are guards outside. It is my impression that they are set up somewhat like concentration camps before the war. I have heard that there are fights and groups who oppose each other and I do not know how I will fit into such a situation since I cannot speak the language. I don’t fear any harm to myself because I don’t think the Soviet government would want to cause an international event by exposing a citizen of the US to such conditions in which he might be harmed in any way.60
After marking his second Christmas at Vladimir, Frank wrote his thirty-third letter to his parents:
26 December 61
Dear Mom & Dad,
I haven’t had a letter from you since the ninth of this month. I hope all of you are well.
I have been thinking about all of you a great deal today (25 Dec). I guess it is because of the time of the year. I hope everyone had a good Christmas.
This has been just another day for me and I can’t say that I have much Christmas spirit. I have spent a big part of the day thinking about past Christmases. The ones that I remember best are the ones we all spent together when all of us children were small.
I remember that most all of this year I have had hopes of being able to spend this Christmas with you. There were a couple of times that I felt almost certain that I would be able to do so but it didn’t turn out that way.
There is always the possibility that things may be better next year but I am afraid that I am not too optimistic. Things look too bad for me to have much hope of being released anytime soon. Actually I can not see any reason why the Soviet Union should release me and on the other hand I can see no reason why I should be kept. One thing for certain they will never have to worry about my flying over their country again. I have been taught a lesson that I don’t expect to forget any time soon no matter where I may be.
I had great hopes that there would be some constructive talks on the Berlin and German problems and that tensions would relax in the world but it looks as if things are not going to improve much. I suppose that it wouldn’t change things very much anyway because it seems to me that as soon as things get better in one part of the world, they immediately get worse in another part.
I remember how much hope I had last January when I heard of Khrushchev’s toast that was made New Year’s eve. He was going to forget about the U-2 event and hoped that relations between the countries would get better. Of course I interpreted that to mean that I might be released but that has been one year ago and I am still here. Maybe he has forgotten the event and it appears that Kennedy has also forgotten it but it still remains very strong in my memory.
Then there was the time in June when the meeting between the two K’s took place. If I had had a bag to pack I would probably have packed it then. I was almost positive I would be released as a result of that meeting, but nothing came of it but an increase in tension in the world because of Berlin.
We will probably never know but I feel that I could have been released if Kennedy had made any efforts to have it done. I may be doing him a wrong by thinking that way because I don’t know for certain that he hasn’t but if he has he has certainly been secretive about it.
Now in a few days a new year will begin. Who knows, maybe something will happen then. I have no reason to think that anything will happen but I have hopes. If I didn’t have such hopes I would probably go crazy.
Well, I guess that will be all for this time. Take care of yourselves.
As Oliver continued to try to push his case with officials in Washington, and his appeal for clemency lingered with the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the prisoner tried to remain optimistic. “I certainly hope this year brings my release,” he said in the journal entry dated January 28, 1962. “I have no particular reason to think it will do so but if there are better relations between the US and SU, I think I stand a good chance of being released. From what I have heard things are not too good at the present time. I am very much afraid that if there is not some kind of disarmament soon there will be a war. There has been no period in history when an arms race has not ended in a war.”62
Eight days later, the KGB colonel asked the rhetorical question that changed my father’s life.
The next letter he wrote would be as a free man.
When the pilot was repatriated, the doubts continued to swirl at Langley.
“After we managed to get Powers back,” McMahon said, “and after all the debriefing of Powers, it proved that he did exactly what he was told, and sure enough he was shot down. McCone didn’t want to accept that…. It was too bad that Powers was not heralded as the hero that he was.”63
His home life remained troubled as well.
Settling into his job at CIA headquarters, while trying to make his marriage work, Dad headed off to bed. Barbara said she was going to stay up a while and write a letter to her mother.
He reported on his tapes the events that followed:
Late in the night, she woke me up, said, “Gary, I’ve just taken a whole bottle of sleeping pills.” Had no idea she would ever attempt anything like this. [I told her] I know you’re just lying to me. Then she fell on the floor. Thinking she was play-acting, I tried to wake her up. Shook her. Slapped her face.
So I contacted a doctor I knew in the agency. Called ambulance. Took her out. Couldn’t revive her. Just a few more minutes she would have been dead….
Went to hospital. Put a tube down her throat. Transferred her to Georgetown [Hospital], where she became alright, sometime after daylight. Got her out of danger….
This same man [from the agency] got word [somebody in the media] got word that she had attempted suicide, and I denied it. I hated to lie, but I did. Told him she had a bad oyster or something.
I think she saw what she was and didn’t like what she saw.64
When I started trying to learn about my father’s life, Mom insisted that I not attempt to contact Barbara as long as my mom was alive. For whatever reason, she didn’t want that connection to my Dad’s previous life. I honored Mom’s wishes but always regretted that I never got the chance to talk with Barbara.
Of course, I will always be connected to my dad’s first wife through his 1960 220SE Mercedes convertible, which Barbara drove while Dad was in prison. The automobile remained in the garage at the Sherman Oaks house for several years after Dad died, fortunately avoiding serious damage when an earthquake destroyed the house in 1994. It belongs to me now. In recent years, I have spent about $12,000 on repairs, but it still needs plenty of tender loving care.
When I take the Mercedes out for an occasional spin, to keep it lubricated, I sometimes flash back to those tender moments when Dad would hold me on his lap and let me steer while we were heading up the last mile to our home in Sun Valley. Since it is the only thing Dad specifically left me in his will, it is very special to me.
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