Image Gallery

Eisenhower was told at Camp David. Assured that the pilot and spy equipment could not have survived the crash, he ordered that a false cover story be issued concealing the fact that the plane’s mission had been espionage. (Dwight D. Eisenhower Library)

The CIA’s Richard Bissell, father of the U-2 project, during a visit to West Berlin. (courtesy Richard Bissell)

Among the tens of thousands of pictures the U-2 took of the Soviet military-industrial complex are these views of a Soviet bomber base (above) and Tyuratam, the Soviet Cape Canaveral. (Central Intelligence Agency)

Nina Petrovna Khrushcheva and Mamie Eisenhower joined their husbands at a White House state dinner. (Dwight D. Eisenhower Library)

Khrushchev went to Camp David for two private days with Eisenhower. They agreed on the Paris Summit and a Presidential trip to Russia in the spring of 1960. The world welcomed the “Spirit of Camp David.” Eisenhower hoped to sign a nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet Union as the crowning achievement of his career. (Dwight D. Eisenhower Library)

When Eisenhower returned to Andrews Air Force Base, he blinked back tears. (Dwight D. Eisenhower Library)

John Eisenhower watched off-camera as his father told the nation of the “remarkable events in Paris” and displayed a U-2 picture of San Diego. (Dwight D. Eisenhower Library)