HOW DID A SINGLE SPY FLIGHT NEARLY DERAIL GLOBAL DIPLOMACY? THE U-2 INCIDENT REVISITED | A renewed look at the 1960 crisis that reshaped Cold War intelligence and diplomacy We return to one of the most consequential intelligence failures of the Cold War—the U-2 spy plane incident of May 1, 1960—and explore again why it mattered far beyond a single flight. On that day, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down deep inside Soviet territory, and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captu