Writing from Moscow, Francis Gary Powers Sends His First Letter to His Parents After Being Shot Down Over the Soviet Union

Hours before his May 1, 1960, mission over the Soviet Union in a U-2 spy plane, Francis Gary Powers dropped a silver dollar in the pocket of his flight suit. It was not for luck; pilots were offered the coins, each containing a pin loaded with lethal toxins, and “exhorted but not ordered” to kill themselves if they were captured and in peril of being tortured. Privately, though, the CIA did not believe there was even a “scintilla” of a chance any pilot would survive if the notoriously flimsy plane were hit with antiaircraft fire. The planes flew at seventy thousand feet, well out of range of Soviet defenses, and in the four years they had been photographing strategically vital civilian and military sites, not a single U-2 had been lost or shot down—until May 1, 1960. Approximately thirteen hundred miles inside the Soviet Union, a surface-to-air missile exploded behind Powers’s plane, sending it into a tailspin. Powers parachuted safely onto a field in Sverdlovsk, where he was taken into custody. The timing could not have been worse. In two weeks, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev were to meet in Paris for a highly anticipated summit. Relations between the two nations, which had been warming, immediately soured. (The meeting went forward, but Khrushchev stormed out of the negotations when Eisenhower refused to apologize for the U-2 affair.) Over three weeks after his arrest and imprisonment, Powers was permitted to send his first letter to his parents in Kentucky. (Barbara is his wife.)

Moscow USSR

26 May 1960

Dear Mom & Dad,

I was told that I could write a letter to you and Barbara. I have finished the letter to Barbara and am now writing to you.

I sincerely hope that you both are well. I was very worried about how the news would affect you. Mom please take care of yourself and you can believe me when I say I am being treated much better than I expected to be. I get more than I can eat and plenty of sleep. I have been furnished books to read and I get to walk in the fresh air every day that it doesn’t rain. So you see that there is no need for worry.

Dad, you see that mom takes care of herself. Don’t let her worry too much, for all the worrying in the world cannot accomplish anything.

I know that you know that I am in a bad situation. I don’t know what is going to happen. I do know that the investigation and interrogation are still going on and after they are over there will be a trial. I am being tried for espionage and according to Article 2 of the Criminal Code, which has been read to me, I can be punished by from 7 to 15 years imprisonment or death in some cases. Where I fit in I don’t know. That will be for the court to decide.

I maybe should not tell you what the punishment may be but I think you should know the truth.

I am very sorry about all this. I am sorry for all the pain and anxiety I have caused you and am still causing you.

When I first arrived here in Moscow I had no appetite at all. All I could do was think about you and Barbara and all the worry and anxiety I was causing you. Believe me, I am sincerely sorry for all this.

When I had to bail out of my plane I got a few scratches on my right shin and a black eye. Other than that I was in good health. A lady doctor has treated both and now everything is fine.

On May 2nd I was taken on a tour of Moscow. I enjoyed it very much. It is a beautiful city and the people here seem very proud of it.

I have been told that there has been a lot about me and the situation I am in written in the papers. I was also told that an article appeared in one of the papers where you, dad, ask for permission to come to see me. I was told that if the U.S. government gave you such permission that you would be allowed to see me if you came here. I would prefer that you wait until the trial or after when I would be able to tell you the results. I will leave the decision of when to come up to you. I hate for you to go to all the expense to come here even though I would like to see you. I have also written Barbara about this.

Tell all the sisters and their families hello for me and tell them that I am as fine as can be expected.

I know that you worry about me but I don’t want you to. I assure you that I am being treated good, and as I said before, much better than I expected.

I guess you have the impression that I had before, that I would be treated badly, but it is not so.

It is dark outside now and I should go to bed. I am anxiously awaiting a letter from you. I do get fairly lonely here even though I spend most of my spare time reading. It is not a loneliness for people but for people I know.

Please take care of yourselves and try not to worry too much. Remember that I love all of you very much and miss you more than I can say.

May God bless all of you and keep you well.

Your Son,

Francis

P.S. My return address is:
Mr. Francis G. Powers
USSR Moscow
Dzerzhinsky Street 2

Powers was sentenced, at the age of thirty-one, to ten years in prison. In February 1962 he was returned to the United States in exchange for the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.