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.