Barry Wirth

Everything was kind of, it looked like there was an opportunity to put a, as he said, a crack in the wall of the Cold War. And then this was the very last scheduled U-2 flight. We were overflying Russia with high-tech cameras and data gathering equipment to look at their nuclear program. And when he was shot down, the Russians did the same thing that the Chinese did.

They did not announce it to the world initially. They allowed the United States to roll out a cover story. So the Eisenhower administration said there was not a spy plane, but a weather plane missing. They didn't know what happened to the pilot. And in the same way that the Chinese eventually took on the lie of the Downey cover story, the Russians announced,

They did not announce it to the world initially. They allowed the United States to roll out a cover story. So the Eisenhower administration said there was not a spy plane, but a weather plane missing. They didn't know what happened to the pilot. And in the same way that the Chinese eventually took on the lie of the Downey cover story, the Russians announced,

They did not announce it to the world initially. They allowed the United States to roll out a cover story. So the Eisenhower administration said there was not a spy plane, but a weather plane missing. They didn't know what happened to the pilot. And in the same way that the Chinese eventually took on the lie of the Downey cover story, the Russians announced,

Here we have the pilot who miraculously survived. He was encouraged but not instructed to kill himself on the way down with a poison stick pin, but he didn't do it. And we have his plane with all the cameras and the high-tech gathering equipment. So we were embarrassed, as we were eventually, about the Downey story. But at the same time, there was an opportunity to negotiate for his release.

Here we have the pilot who miraculously survived. He was encouraged but not instructed to kill himself on the way down with a poison stick pin, but he didn't do it. And we have his plane with all the cameras and the high-tech gathering equipment. So we were embarrassed, as we were eventually, about the Downey story. But at the same time, there was an opportunity to negotiate for his release.

Here we have the pilot who miraculously survived. He was encouraged but not instructed to kill himself on the way down with a poison stick pin, but he didn't do it. And we have his plane with all the cameras and the high-tech gathering equipment. So we were embarrassed, as we were eventually, about the Downey story. But at the same time, there was an opportunity to negotiate for his release.

We know all this from Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies. There was an opportunity to negotiate for his release because he was a known spy and we had a known spy of theirs. Because Downey and Fecteau were not acknowledged, there was never opportunity for a swap. Your source material was his diaries, right? Or part of your source materials. Yeah.

We know all this from Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies. There was an opportunity to negotiate for his release because he was a known spy and we had a known spy of theirs. Because Downey and Fecteau were not acknowledged, there was never opportunity for a swap. Your source material was his diaries, right? Or part of your source materials. Yeah.

We know all this from Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies. There was an opportunity to negotiate for his release because he was a known spy and we had a known spy of theirs. Because Downey and Fecteau were not acknowledged, there was never opportunity for a swap. Your source material was his diaries, right? Or part of your source materials. Yeah.

I don't know that this book would have been possible if I hadn't gained access to an unpublished prison memoir that he had written. So when he ran for Senate, his handler said, voters know nothing about you really, except that you were in Chinese prison for 20 years. They need to hear your side of the story. So during the campaign, he wrote a prison memoir.

I don't know that this book would have been possible if I hadn't gained access to an unpublished prison memoir that he had written. So when he ran for Senate, his handler said, voters know nothing about you really, except that you were in Chinese prison for 20 years. They need to hear your side of the story. So during the campaign, he wrote a prison memoir.

I don't know that this book would have been possible if I hadn't gained access to an unpublished prison memoir that he had written. So when he ran for Senate, his handler said, voters know nothing about you really, except that you were in Chinese prison for 20 years. They need to hear your side of the story. So during the campaign, he wrote a prison memoir.

And when he lost, he put it in a drawer and and left it there, and his widow, Audrey, discovered it after he died. His friends, his Yale friends and some of his former CIA friends, wanted his story to be told, and one of them gave me a copy of this.

And when he lost, he put it in a drawer and and left it there, and his widow, Audrey, discovered it after he died. His friends, his Yale friends and some of his former CIA friends, wanted his story to be told, and one of them gave me a copy of this.

And when he lost, he put it in a drawer and and left it there, and his widow, Audrey, discovered it after he died. His friends, his Yale friends and some of his former CIA friends, wanted his story to be told, and one of them gave me a copy of this.

And as soon as I read it and discovered Jack Downey, the man, in his own voice, I realized that that's got to be the centerpiece of this book, because there's no other way to account for all that time he spent in prison. There's no other way to account. He never published a book on his own. He never cooperated with anybody on a book.

And as soon as I read it and discovered Jack Downey, the man, in his own voice, I realized that that's got to be the centerpiece of this book, because there's no other way to account for all that time he spent in prison. There's no other way to account. He never published a book on his own. He never cooperated with anybody on a book.

And as soon as I read it and discovered Jack Downey, the man, in his own voice, I realized that that's got to be the centerpiece of this book, because there's no other way to account for all that time he spent in prison. There's no other way to account. He never published a book on his own. He never cooperated with anybody on a book.

He was asked innumerable times, including by me while he was still alive to cooperate, never did that. So there was literally no other way to account for the time that he spent in prison and how he felt about it and what he thought about it without access to this. So