BOOKS

Books

 

To purchase a book, please contact Bryan Zwanzig via email at bryan.z@coldwar.org.


Operation Overflight

In this new edition of his classic 1970 memoir about the notorious U-2 Incident, pilot Francis Gary Powers reveals the full story of what actually happened in the most sensational espionage case in Cold War history. The narrative is a tremendously exciting suspense story about a man who was labeled a traitor by many of his countrymen, but who emerged a Cold War hero.

Download a partial reading of Operation Overflight
read by William Hope
Originally broadcast by the BBC, May 2000.

By Francis Gary Powers, Curt Gentry, and Norman Polmar.
Publisher: Brasseys, Inc.
U.S. ONLY
Price: $28.00 plus shipping

At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War

 

"Tom Reed tells the story of the heroic men and women on both sides of the Iron Curtain who fought that Cold War and kept us from plunging into the abyss of nuclear disaster along the way...Through his numerous and diverse jobs in both government and the private sector, Tom enjoyed a unique catbird seat to history and has done us all a great favor by taking the time to record what he saw and heard. I commend what follows to your attention, for it is a remarkable tale of courage, determination, and yes, sometimes, luck.”
— From the Introduction by George H.W. Bush, 41st President of the United States

By Tom Reed, Former Secretary of the Air Force, and signed by the Author
Publisher: Presidio Press/Ballantine Books
Price: $31.00 plus shipping

Cold War Virginia

The Commonwealth played a central role in United States involvement during the Cold War. With doomsday planning operations underway for World War III, the location of the Pentagon, CIA and other federal agencies established Northern Virginia as an epicenter of decision-making. As Virginia military bases readied for a potential surprise attack by the Soviet Union, local research facilities played a paramount role in the Space Race. In 1960, the Soviet Union’s shoot-down of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, a Virginia native, created a superpower crisis of epic proportions. Cold War historians Francis Gary Powers Jr. and Christopher Sturdevant tell these and other tales of espionage, heroism and betrayal.

By Francis Gary Powers Jr. and Christopher Sturdevant
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Price: $25.00 plus shipping
 
Spy Pilot: Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy

 
Based on newly available information, the son of famed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers presents the facts and dispels misinformation about the Cold War espionage program that turned his father into a Cold War icon. One of the most talked-about events of the Cold War was the downing of the American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960. The event was recently depicted in the Steven Spielberg movie Bridge of Spies. Powers was captured by the KGB, subjected to a televised show trial, and imprisoned, all of which created an international incident. Soviet authorities eventually released him in exchange for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. On his return to the United States, Powers was exonerated of any wrongdoing while imprisoned in Russia, yet, due to bad press and the government's unwillingness to heartily defend Powers, a cloud of controversy lingered until his untimely death in 1977. 
 
Now his son, Francis Gary Powers Jr. and acclaimed historian Keith Dunnavant have written this new account of Powers's life based on personal files that had never been previously available. Delving into old audio tapes, letters his father wrote and received while imprisoned in the Soviet Union, the transcript of his father's debriefing by the CIA, other recently declassified documents about the U-2 program, and interviews with the spy pilot's contemporaries, Powers and Dunnavant set the record straight. The result is a fascinating piece of Cold War history. This is also a book about a son's journey to understand his father, pursuing justice and a measure of peace.Almost sixty years after the fact, this will be the definitive account of one of the most important events of the Cold War.
 
By Francis Gary Powers Jr. and Keith Dunnavant, with foreword by Sergei Khrushchev
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Price: $28.00 plus shipping

Letters from a Soviet Prison: The Personal Journal and Private Correspondence of CIA U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers

From the Author: My father, Francis Gary Powers, was a CIA U-2 pilot who was shot down in the midst of the Cold War, on May 1, 1960, while flying in Soviet airspace. After his capture, he was tried for espionage and then served nearly two years in a Soviet prison until his eventual release in exchange for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who was caught in the United States in the late 1950s. The two operatives were brought to separate sides of the Glienicker Bridge in Potsdam, Germany, as depicted in Steven Spielberg’s motion picture Bridge of Spies, where the exchange took place. While in prison my father kept a personal journal and was allowed to write and receive personal correspondence. In this book are the never-before published journal of my father’s thoughts as a Prisoner of War, along with more than 150 personal letters written and received by my father during his captivity.

By Francis Gary Powers Jr. and Douglas E. Campbell
Publisher: Lulu Press
Price: $30.00 plus shipping
 
Enemy Territory (Children's Graphic Novel)
 
 
On May 1, 1960, Francis Gary Powers, the pilot of an American U-2 spy plane, was shot down while flying though Soviet airspace. Powers was convicted of espionage. In February 1962, however, he was traded for a captured Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel. This is a graphic novel interpretation of those events.
 
By Francis Gary Powers Jr. and Walter Pfenninger
Publisher: Lulu Press
Price: $25.00 plus shipping