Spy Pilot

Name: Spy Pilot
ISBN: 978-1633884687

by Francis Gary Powers, Keith Dunnavant, Sergei Khrushchev

Publisher

Prometheus

Publication

Jan 22, 2019

Format

Hardback

Illustrated

Price

$27.95

Dimensions

6 x 9 x 1.08 in

ISBN

978-1633884687

ASIN

1633884686

Pages

312

Age

Adult 18+

Rights Sold

🌍 World Wide Rights Available

Description

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 CIA 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 seventy years after the fact, this will be the definitive account of one of the most important events of the Cold War.

Awards & Endorsements

Awards, Recognition, and Community Involvement

• International Spy Museum (Honorary Board Member), 2016-2025

• The Cold War Museum (Founder and Chairman), 1996-2025

• The SAC and Aerospace Museum (Board Member), 2018-2022

• Presidential Advisory Committee for the Cold War Theme Study (Chairman), 2010-2022

• Ten Outstanding Young Americans – United States Jaycees, 2002

• Ten Outstanding Young Virginians – Virginia Jaycees, 1998

• Certificate of Appreciation – Central Intelligence Agency, 1997

• Certificate of Appreciation – National Security Agency, 1997

• Overhead Reconnaissance Preservation Award – National Reconnaissance Office, 1996

Published Works:

• Book, Cold War Virginia, July 2024

• Book, Protecting America: Cold War Defensive Sites, June 2024

• Graphic Novel, The Berlin Airlift, May 2024

• Graphic Novel, Enemy Territory, August 2022

• Article, George C. Marshall Foundation Magazine, December 2019

• Book, Spy Pilot, January 22, 2019

• Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2018

• Book, Letters form a Soviet Prison, May 1, 2017

• Article, The Moscow Times, Moscow, Russia, February 7, 2012

• Article, The Moscow Times, Moscow, Russia, May 17, 2010

• Feature, Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly, Bethesda, MD, 2010

• Chapter, The Most Dangerous Years: The Cold War 1953-1975, VMI, Lexington, VA, 2005

• Epilogue, Operation Overflight: Memoir of the U-2 Incident, Brassey, Washington, DC, 2004

• Congressional Testimony, HR107-Preservation of Cold War Sites, USGPO, W. DC 2001

• Sidebar, American Heritage Magazine, Forbes, New York, NY, September 2000

• Preface, Corona: The First NRO Reconnaissance Eye in Space, National War College, Washington, DC, 1997

• Chapter, U-2 Flights and the Cold War in the High North, Bodø Aviation Center, Bodø, Norway, 1995

PRESS: www.GaryPowers.com/press

Author(s)

Francis Gary Powers

FRANCIS GARY POWERS, JR. lectures internationally and appears regularly on C-SPAN, the History, Discovery, and A&E channels. He is the son of Francis Gary Powers, Sr. the U-2 pilot whose plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, triggering an international incident during the Cold War. Gary is the author of Letters from a Soviet Prison (2017), Spy Pilot (2019), Enemy Territory (2022), The Berlin Airlift (2024), Cold War Virginia (2024), and Protecting America: Cold War Defensive Sites (2024). He is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of The Cold War Museum located at Vint Hill, VA and was the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Cold War Theme Study which assisted the National Park Service to identify historic Cold War sites for preservation. In 2015, he consulted for a Steven Spielberg thriller, Bridge of Spies, about the 1962 spy exchange between KGB spy Rudolph Abel and CIA U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, Sr. Gary conducts Spy Tours of Washington, DC and Cold War Espionage Tours of Europe (www. SpyTour .com). He is a past Board Member of the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace and an Honorary Board Member of the International Spy Museum. Because of his efforts to honor Cold War veterans the Junior Chamber of Commerce selected him as one of the “Ten Outstanding Young Americans” for 2002. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy and Master's Degrees in Public Administration and U.S. History.

Keith Dunnavant

Keith Dunnavant is the author of eight non-fiction books, including definitive biographies of football icons Paul "Bear" Bryant, Bart Starr and Joe Montana, the history-challenging Cold War story SPY PILOT (co-authored with Francis Gary Powers, Jr.), and SPEED, which takes readers into the stratospheric life of SR-71 test pilot Bob Gilliland and the shadowy world of the Lockheed Skunk Works. He often explores the collision of sports and culture, most notably in THE MISSING RING, which focuses on the 1966 Alabama football team's pursuit of perfection in an imperfect world, against the backdrop of a time and place on the brink. THE FIFTY-YEAR SEDUCTION, which has been utilized as a textbook at various universities, traces the cause-and-effect of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Board of Regents decision—the earthquake that launched the modern age of college football. Dunnavant, who hosts the AMERICAN ACHIEVERS podcast and is frequently seen on television programs dealing with college football history, produced/directed the civil rights documentary THREE DAYS AT FOSTER, which aired in syndication, and co-directed the ESPN Films documentary BART STARR. He started writing about Southeastern Conference sports as a teenager, covered national college football for THE NATIONAL, was a long-time contributor to BUSINESSWEEK, SPORT and ATLANTA, and spent two decades in magazine management and ownership, directing coverage of media, sports, business, culture and politics.

Francis Gary Powers Jr

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Publisher	GaryPowers.com
Publication	Jan 22, 2019
Format	Hardback
ISBN	978-1633884687
Pages	312
Age	18 - 99
Price	$27.95