The U-2 Over the Soviet Union - America¿s Famous Cold War Spy Plane from a Soviet Perspective

On 1 May 1960, a traditional military parade was held in Moscow. What stood it out from the previous ones, however, was the number of missiles, and in particular the ground-to-air anti-aircraft variants, that were present.There was perhaps nothing surprising in this dominance of missiles, for Nikita Khrushchev had already declared that the so-called Rocket Troops were to be the -main branch of the armed forces-. Not for nothing had the Politburo allocated huge sums of money and the best scientific minds to the on-going development of these weapons and units. In fact, there was no fly-past over the Red Square in 1960 as Khrushchev considered aircraft to be a -dying species-. From then on, it was being stated, military aviation would be assigned little more than an auxiliary role in the defence of the Soviet Bloc.Khrushchev-s assessment of the future of aircraft was seemingly confirmed by an incident that occurred more than 1,000km to the east of Moscow. For what the spectators and parti