Feb 10, 2020

Cold War: 58 years ago, captured American pilot Gary Powers was exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel

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On 10 February, 1962, captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers was exchanged for Rudolf Ivanovich Abel who was a Soviet intelligence officer. He was arrested on charges of conspiracy by FBI agents in 1957.

Decades later in 2015, this incident inspired a popular Steven Spielberg movie named Bridge of Spies in which Tom Hanks played the acclaimed character of the lawyer who facilitated this exchange.