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    "localId": "72736337",
    "label": "Highlights of Powers Trial",
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    "id": "72736337",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/72736337",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Highlights of Powers Trial",
    "description": "This is the U.S. State Department's summary of the trial of pilot Francis Gary Powers for espionage in the Soviet Union.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/72736337",
    "collections": [
        "White House Office, Office of the Staff Secretary: Records of Paul T. Carroll, Andrew J. Goodpaster, L. Arthur Minnich, and Christopher H. Russell",
        "Alphabetical Subject Files"
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 19,
            "logicalDate": "1960-08-19",
            "month": 8,
            "year": 1960
        }
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    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "Dwights\nThe\nHighlights of Powers Trial - August 19\nD\nThe trial ended in the early afternoon and, after several hours\nrecess to consider the verdict, the court reconvened to announce that\nPowers had been sentenced to ten years confinement -- five years less\nthan what the Soviet prosecutor, Rudenko, had demanded. The morning\nsession consisted of the summation by Rudenko, a short recess, defense\nlawyer Grinev's plea for leniency, and then Powers' final statement.\nRudenko's Summation. For the first time in the trial since the\nreading of the indictment the stops were pulled out and a bitter verbal\ndenunciation of the U.S. and its foreign policy became a part of the\ncourt record. Rudenko in essence repeated and elaborated on what has\nbeen the standard theme of Soviet media in past months, stating that\nthe trial \"unmasks completely the criminal aggressive actions of U.S.\nruling quarters, the actual inspirers and organizers of the monstrous\ncrimes directed against the peace and security of the peoples\" and\n\"has proved once again that in the struggle against the forces of peace\nthe reactionary forces of the United States do not scruple to use any\nmeans, criminally trample underfoot elementary norms of international\nlaw, and violate the national sovereignty of other states with a view\nto pursuing the bankrupt \"brinkmanship' poliey.\nRudenko somewhat tediously revieved the testimony and evidence\npresented in the trial, stressing primarily the points that the flight\nwas planned in advance, the equipment was U.S. military equipment for\nintelligence purposes, CIA and the Air Force were the agencies intimately\ninvolved, and other material carried by the pilot and the plane made it\nclear that the flight was to be over the USSR. While concentrating\nhis remerks on the responsibility of U.S. ruling circles, Rudenko did\nnot mitigate Powers' responsibility and stressed that Powers was not an\nordinary spy nor a robot but a specially and carefully drilled criminal.\nAggression in Soviet Airspace. Rudenko argued that while there\nwas only one plane involved, the act must be considered aggression since\nit could have been carrying a \"deadly load\" or have been the advance\nreconnaissance plane for squadrons of nuclear veapon-carrying bombers,\nand there was no way to know from the ground what type of plane it was.\nHe, moreover, stated without reservation that \"an indisputable principle\nof international law is the principle of full and exclusive sovereignty\nof a state over its territory, including the entire airspace above it.\"\nComplicity of Other Countries. Rudenko pointed out that the\nirrefutable judicial evidence was provided by U.S. leaders thenselves\nin"
}