Our dining program features two locations serving up a broad range of cuisine—everything from hamburgers to artisan sandwiches.
Please note: Food and beverages are not allowed inside the Museum exhibit halls or theaters.
Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016
06:30 PM
US/Central
U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and Soviet spy Rudolph Abel walked across the "Bridge of Spies" to their respective freedom on May 1, 1960 in Potsdam. Abel was welcomed home as a hero to the Soviet Union. But Powers returned home labeled a traitor in the media. Using FOIA requests, declassified files and his father's memoirs, Francis Gary Powers, Jr., the Cold War pilot's son, will reveal the full story of what actually happened in this most sensational espionage case in Cold War history. The truth allowed his father to justly emerge as a Cold War hero, eventually decorated with a Silver Star posthumously.
This insider account of the Cold War spy exchange is now the subject of the major motion picture Bridge of Spies by Steven Spielberg starring Tom Hanks. Francis Gary Powers, Jr. is founder and chairman emeritus of The Cold War Museum in Vint Hill, Virginia 40 miles from Washington, DC. Books Strangers on a Bridge by James Donovan and Operation Overflight Francis Gary Powers will be available following the lecture.
Our dining program features two locations serving up a broad range of cuisine—everything from hamburgers to artisan sandwiches.
Please note: Food and beverages are not allowed inside the Museum exhibit halls or theaters.
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