U-2 Incident :: essays research papers

On May 1, 1960, two weeks prior to the UnitedStates-Soviet Summit in Paris, a U-2 high altitudereconnaissance airplane was shot down while flying aspy mission over the Soviet Union. The Eisenhower politics was forced to own up to the mission,and Khrushchev canceled the Paris Summit. As aresult, The Cold War between the United States andthe Soviet Union continued for over 30 years.Shortly after the end of World War II, United Statesand the Soviet Union emerged as the two superpowers.These two former state of wartime allies found themselveslocked in a struggle that came to be known as the ColdWar. Eisenhower saw the Cold War in stark moralterms "This is a war of light against darkness,freedom against slavery, Godliness against atheism."But the President refused to undertake an effort to"roll back" Soviet gains in the years after WW II.Early in his administration he embraced a policy ofcontainment as the cornerstone of his administrationsSoviet policy. Eisenhower rejec ted the notion of a"fortress America" isolated from the rest of theworld, good behind its atomic shield. He believedthat active US engagement in world affairs was thebest means of presenting the promise of democracy tonations susceptible to the intrusion ofSoviet-sponsored communism. Additionally, Eisenhowermaintained that dialogue between the US and the SovietUnion was crucial to the security of the entire globe,even if, in the process, each side was adding to itspile of nuclear weapons.The death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, two monthsinto the Eisenhower presidency, gave rise to hopes ofa more flexible, accommodating Soviet leadership. In1953, Eisenhower delivered a speech underscoring thepotential human represent of the Cold War to both sides.Hoping to strike a more compatible tone with GeorgiMalenkov, Stalins successor, Eisenhower suggested theSoviets cease their brazen expansion of territory andinfluence in transfer for American cooperation andgoodwill. The Sovie ts responded coolly to the speech,especially to the USs insistence on free electionsfor German unification, self-determination for EasternEurope, and a Korean armistice. The two sides wouldnot meet face-to-face until the Geneva Summit of 1955.At the Summit, Eisenhower asserted, "I came to Genevabecause I believe mankind longs for freedom from warand the rumors of war. I came here because my lastingfaith in the decent instincts and good sense of thepeople who populate this world of ours." In thisspirit of good will, Eisenhower presented the Sovietswith his Open Skies proposal. In it he proposed thateach side interpret full descriptions of all theirmilitary facilities and allow for aerial inspectionsto insure the information was correct. The Sovietsrejected the proposal.