Posted on 11/21/2001, 3:06:16 AM by Ligeia
With the nation plunged into a hot war with terrorism, The Spies of Washington tour with its emphasis on Cold War spying seemed at times like ancient history.
That is not to say that the tour was not fascinating. It was, thanks in large part to the man who organized it and whose passion it is to honor the heroes of the Cold War, especially his father, Francis Gary Powers. For those who may not know or only dimly recall, Francis Gary Powers was the pilot of a U.S. U2 reconnaissance plane that was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960. Powers was tried and imprisoned by the Russians and was released in 1962 in a swap for captured Soviet spy, Rudolph Abel. Powers died in a helicopter crash in California in 1977. Francis Gary Powers Jr., the current president of the Vienna-Tysons Regional Chamber of Commerce and tireless advocate for the Cold War Museum, was 12 years old when the senior Powers was killed. Powers' quest to understand his father, and to honor his memory, turned out to be nearly as much a part of the day's history lesson as the visits to spy sites in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia. The Washington portion of the half-day tour began by bus from the Omni Shoreham Hotel Sunday morning. The tour group was, in some respects, as interesting as the tour itself. The group of 20 or so was largely drawn from a meeting at the hotel of the "Old Crows," an international association of electronic warfare specialists. More than half the group were foreign nationals, most from Western Europe and most in the military. All were expertly vague when asked about their work. The tour guide was Carol Bessette, a retired Air Force intelligence officer. Bessette, who said she "found retiring hard to deal with," is a certified master tour guide. It showed in her expert narrative as the tour unfolded. While concentrating on the Cold War, the tour also covered some Civil War and World War II espionage sites. For example, the home of Confederate spy Rose Greenhow was just across Lafayette Square from the White House where the Hay Adams Hotel now stands. The Vichy French (German-controlled government of unoccupied France during World War II) Embassy and the home of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor to the CIA, were also on the tour. Slow drive-bys of the old and new Russian embassies provided time for a number of stories of master spies, such as Briton Kim Philby, right up through Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, two Northern Virginia residents who sold out their country. Lunch was at the Au Pied de Cochon restaurant in Georgetown where Russian defector Vitaly Yurchenko slipped his CIA handler and re-defected. The restaurant features the "Yurchenko Shooter"--half Grand Marnier, half vodka. During lunch, Bill Yuri from Ohio was communicative, except about his work. Bill and Peg Welch of Florida said they were retired. All the foreign visitors exchanged pleasantries in excellent English, but spoke more earnestly only in their native languages. As the tour progressed, Powers discussed the Cold War Museum, which recently became an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. He said the Cold War Museum is seeking a home and he is currently looking at a site near Lorton. In addition, legislative bill HR 107 has been offered in the U.S. House of Representatives. The measure requires the Secretary of the Interior to identify sites and resources "for commemorating and interpreting the Cold War." After lunch, Powers reflected on how he came to terms with his father's death and how that led to his personal crusade for the Cold War Museum. Describing himself as "an introverted kid growing up in the San Fernando Valley (in California)," Powers said it was not until he was in college that he was able to channel his energies toward an understanding of the Cold War and his father's role in that epic struggle. The last stop on the tour was at the Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington, one of several "mailboxes" used by former FBI agent and confessed spy Robert Hanssen to pass documents to the Russians. As Bessette expertly explained in detail how Hanssen was caught, one of the tour group asked, "Isn't it possible the Russians served him (Hanssen) up for their own purposes?" Bessette gamely responded, saying something about the difficulty of proving that case. But the question hung in the air as the group returned to the bus. For more about the tour and the Cold War Museum, visit www.coldwar.org or call Gary Powers at 703-273-2381 |
I'll be sure to look into that trip down memory lane if I ever get back to Washington. Thanks again.
Somewhere I read that Francis Gary Power's path might have crossed that of Lee Harvey Oswald. While Oswald was in the service he was assigned to guard our U2 spy planes, which were very secret. A plane that the Soviets didn't know we had. It was shortly after Oswald moved to the USSR that Powers was discovered and shot down. The author suggests that it was Oswald who tipped off the Soviets to the existence of the U2. At that time it was very uncommon for the Soviets to allow foreign nationals to immigrate into the Soviet Union, but for some reason Oswald was welcome.
I have no idea if this thesis has any merit, but it is thought provoking.
It reminds me of one of the men killed in the attack on September 11. He was a decorated Viet Nam veteran, a Purple Heart recipient who lost his leg. He was on the plane that was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon. I was struck by the irony of a man living his adult life with an artificial limb, having risked his life for his country to die at the hand of terrorists attacking the Pentagon.
I don't know if you happened to catch the story from the Russian pilot that brought him down. He talked about it last year for the first time since 1960. This Russian pilot was flying some special rocket powered interceptor. I think it was specially made to take down the U2. The mission was a suicide mission. The Russian pilot was supposed to crash his rocket powered MIG into the U2 taking both down in a giant fireball. The pilot lined him up and took a run at Powers' U2. He missed, pasing a few feet in front of him. The dirty air ripped the wings off the U2 causing the Powers crash. The Russians kept it hush, hush in an effort to make us believe they had a missile capable of shooting down the U2 when they really did not.
Powers always said he saw an orange flash in front of him, then the plane broke up. Some in the Air Force said he was lying to cover some blunder he must have made. The rocket pasing in front of him explains the orange flash. The Russian said that he was telling the truth all along.
Have you ever been struck by just how young Lee Harvey Oswald was? I think he was just 24 years old in November of '63. He was certainly an odd duck. He had also been a member of a pro-Castro group down in Texas, along with another paragon of the American Left, Madelyn Murray.
I followed the investigation the conspiracy theories over the years, from the "magic bullet" to the "missing brain" to the "mysterious deaths" and on and on, and I think that Oswald killed Kennedy. All on his own, just like the Garfield and McKinley assassins. I've yet to see one objection that can't plausibly fit the Oswald thesis, and if you ever put the alternate explanations under the same scrutiny as is done with the Warren Report you'll see just how doubtful they are. I agree with Jackie Kennedy, who said "a dirty little communist killed my husband." If the Report was such a whitewash, you'd think the Kennedy family would have expressed that opinion over the years. And they haven't. The one family most directly affected by the assassination has been the least concerned with contesting the Warren Commission. Maybe that inconvenient fact, too, is worked into one of the conspiracy theories, but if it is I haven't seen it.
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