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N0KFQ > TODAY 16.05.16 16:18l 54 Lines 2485 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 93791_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - May 16
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JM1YTR<JE7YGF<N9PMO<NS2B<N0KFQ
Sent: 160516/1404Z 93791@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1960
U.S.-Soviet summit meeting collapses
In the wake of the Soviet downing of an American U-2 spy plane on
May 1, Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev lashes out at the United
States and President Dwight D. Eisenhower at a Paris summit
meeting between the two heads of state. Khrushchev's outburst
angered Eisenhower and doomed any chances for successful talks or
negotiations at the summit.
On May 1, 1960, the Soviets shot down a CIA spy plane and
captured the pilot, Gary Francis Powers. The United States issued
public denials that the aircraft was being used for espionage,
claiming instead that it was merely a weather plane that had
veered off course. The Soviets thereupon triumphantly produced
Powers, large pieces of wreckage from the plane, and Powers'
admission that he was working for the CIA. The incident was a
public relations fiasco for Eisenhower, who was forced to admit
that the plane had indeed been spying on Russia.
Tensions from the incident were still high when Eisenhower and
Khrushchev arrived in Paris to begin a summit meeting on May 16.
Khrushchev wasted no time in tearing into the United States,
declaring that Eisenhower would not be welcome in Russia during
his scheduled visit to the Soviet Union in June. He condemned the
"inadmissible, provocative actions" of the United States in
sending the spy plane over the Soviet Union, and demanded that
Eisenhower ban future flights and punish those responsible for
this "deliberate violation of the Soviet Union." When Eisenhower
agreed only to a "suspension" of the spy plane flights,
Khrushchev left the meeting in a huff. According to U.S.
officials, the president was "furious" at Khrushchev for his
public dressing-down of the United States. The summit meeting
officially adjourned the next day with no further meetings
between Khrushchev and Eisenhower. Eisenhower's planned trip to
Moscow in June was scrapped.
The collapse of the May 1960 summit meeting was a crushing blow
to those in the Soviet Union and the United States who believed
that a period of "peaceful coexistence" between the two
superpowers was on the horizon. During the previous few years,
both Eisenhower and Khrushchev had publicly indicated their
desire for an easing of Cold War tensions, but the spy plane
incident put an end to such talk, at least for the time being.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-Mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
Message timed: 09:03 on May 16, 2016
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