27-02-2017, 10:30 PM
Walt Brown covers the U2 shoot-down in a 300 page appendix (really a short book of its own) in his Chronology. Powers' plane was changed at the last minute to one most of his fellow pilots knew to be a dud. Powers was then tasked with flying directly over a spot with an anti-missile system on the ground beneath him, and the crash would derail the May Day parade peace celebrations. Khrushchev had even decorated his speech area with doves of peace, and either a journalist or the US ambassador (I forget which) was present and saw the moment when a startled Khrushchev was given the news in public. Powers was not expected to survive the mission, and Dulles - in Brown's book - appears to lie to Eisenhower both before and after the event. Brown's thesis is that Oswald was to be used as an unwitting patsy for the U2 crash. After Powers survived, Oswald (who, in some assassination books, is reported as attending the trial) suddenly develops a strong interest in returning home. With that facade blown, US intel and Angleton then had a spare patsy on hand that could be used for something else. I'm looking forward to the next pieces by Vasilios, this should be a great series. These new in-depth pieces at the Kennedys and King site are really top stuff.