Did Oswald cause the Powers incident?

by kryptos99
deancorll_

You're referring to Lee Harvey Oswald and Gary Powers and the U2 Overflights, presumably?

No, almost certainly, no. It's not worth getting into.

Ike's Bluff, by Evan Thomas, a fairly good book about Eisenhower's day-to-day struggles in regards to his presidency and the Cold War, makes it plain that the U2 overlight program was exceptionally secure. Flights were authorized in groups of 5 or 10 by the president himself, sometimes even one at a time. the U2 program was viewed by the president as an extraordinarily risky procedure, and he insisted upon extremely detailed reports both before and after any flight.

Eisenhower was, at all times, cognizant that the U2 could be shot down, the pilot captured and essentially paraded around by the Politburo, a dark scenario that essentially came to pass at the worst possible time for him diplomatically. He, and his military/intelligence advisers were aware of, and briefed him on, the radar, missile, and aircraft interception capabilities in and around Soviet airspace to the extent where the U2 incident was seen as no large shock.