Spy Pilot: Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy, helps to set the record straight in regards to the fake news that surround the U-2 Incident and tarnished my father’s reputation. It gives an overview of what it was like to grow up in the shadow of a famous Cold War figure, my search for the truth after my father’s death in 1977 when I was 12 years old, and how my research led to the USAF and CIA posthumously awarding my father the POW Medal / Director’s Medal and Silver Star in 2000 and 2012 respectively. During my talk I discuss my books and Spielberg’s Cold War thriller, Bridge of Spies, which depicts my father’s exchange for Soviet spy Rudolph Abel in 1962.

-Francis Gary Powers, Jr.