James B. Donovan's Trial Of Rudolf Abel

The trial of Rudolf Abel and the capturing of Francis Gary Powers, a U.S. spy, was the first of many political conflicts on the way to compromise. In 1957 lawyer James B. Donovan accepted a request to represent Rudolf Abel (Ott “James”). James B. Donovan helped solve the conflict by defending Abel and organizing a trade. Donovan hoped he could turn Abel into a double agent but later his opinion changed. When Donovan met Abel for the first time on August 21 Abel told him he was offered a $10,000 year job and his freedom in the U.S. “They must think all of us are rats who can be bought” Abel told Donovan (Donovan “Moment”). Abel was extremely loyal to the Soviet Union. No amount of bribery could persuade him to double cross the USSR.

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His mission was to fly in a U-2 over the Soviet Union, take pictures of their new missile sites, then land safely in Norway. About halfway through his mission a surface to air missile exploded near the U-2 (Goodman 7). Powers was trained to do 1 of 2 things if his plane was hit, the first inject himself with poison from a pin hidden inside a silver dollar. The second was to blow up the plane. As the aircraft spun out of control it was impossible for Powers to do either (Goodman 7; “May”). Powers was forced to eject from the plane landing safely with a parachute, but was captured by the Soviets as soon as he hit the ground (Goodman 7). The capturing of Gary Powers a U.S. spy would allow the Soviets to torture the pilot until he told military secrets, creating serious political conflict for the US government. The capturing of the undercover U-2 spy plane pilot was a tremendously dangerous situation for the Americans. When Powers was shot down President Eisenhower was forced to admit that the CIA was flying over the USSR (History.com staff. “U-2”). The Soviets were furious that the U.S. was doing secret flights over their military basis even though just a few years earlier one of their own spies was caught in the

Much of strain was on the USSR and the U.S. at this time (Powers). When the U.S. arrested Rudolf Abel they were proud for they now had some leverage in the war. But now they were worried Francis Gary Powers would give their secrets away after excessive torture. The American public hated him for not self destructing his plane, for now, Powers was holding the fate of the war in his hands. The U.S. knew they needed to organize an exchange, the USSR would not kill Francis Gary Powers. They wanted to get information out of him. The stress was so unusually high that the leader of the USSR canceled a summit with the U.S. (“Spies”). The canceled summit and the fear of information being tortured out of Powers stimulated the U.S. to be more open to the idea of an