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Nikita Khrushchev
demanded an apology from the Americans |
1960: East-West summit in tatters after spy plane
row |
Artificially 1969:
The
The
much-heralded Big Four summit in Paris has failed before it even started.
It follows three days of bitter recrimination over a US spy plane shot
down two weeks ago by the Russians.
Any hope of East-West rapprochement was doomed from the
start as heads of state - President Eisenhower, Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev, General de Gaulle and Harold Macmillan - never got beyond
preliminary procedural meetings.
The U2 spy plane was shot down on 1 May by a Russian missile after it
lost height owing to engine trouble.
The civilian pilot, Gary Powers, was able to bale out of the aircraft
and was arrested in Sverdlovsk in the USSR.
State Department denial
When the Soviet Union announced it had shot the plane down, the US
State Department at first denied it was a spy plane, saying it was simply
an aircraft that had gone astray.
But when Mr Khrushchev produced photos taken by the pilot of military
installations, President Eisenhower was forced to admit he had authorised
the flight because he needed to prevent another Pearl Harbor.
When leaders gathered in Paris for the summit two days ago, after
months of planning by Soviet and French officials, Mr Khrushchev demanded
an apology before discussions could begin.
He also said the USA should promise never to violate Soviet airspace
again and should punish all those responsible for the incident.
President Eisenhower rejected the demands, leaving the hoped-for peace
summit in tatters.
De Gaulle's invitation
General de Gaulle had tried to revive the talks by inviting all the
delegates to another conference at the Elysee Palace to discuss the
situation.
All agreed but President Eisenhower insisted he would not discuss the
spy plane incident.
When told of the invitation, Mr Khrushchev was on a trip outside Paris.
He returned to the French capital and told a press conference the Soviet
Union was ready to take part only if the USA met his demands of a public
condemnation of the U2 incident.
So ended the summit that never was.
Both sides are now blaming each other for the failure of the
conference.