Letters From a Soviet Prison

My father Francis Gary Powers was a CIA U-2 pilot who was shot down in the midst of the Cold War on May 1 1960 while flying in Soviet airspace. After his capture he was tried for espionage and then served nearly two years in a Soviet prison until his eventual release in exchange for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel a senior KGB spy who was caught in the United States in the late 1950s. The two operatives were brought to separate sides of the Glienicker Bridge in Potsdam Germany as depicted in Steven Spielberg's motion picture Bridge of Spies where the exchange took place. While in prison my father kept a personal journal and was allowed to write and receive personal correspondence. In this book are the never-before published journal of my father's thoughts as a Prisoner of War along with more than 150 personal letters written and received by my father during his captivity.