Francy Powers Jr. - Spy Pilot - Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy

If I need anything else as time goes on I will let you know. Don’t send too much at one time for there is very little space to keep it. I will let you know about other foods later.

Darling, I know you worry about me a lot but it is needless. The treatment is good and the food, although not as good as I was getting before, is plentiful and I won’t be losing weight.

When you have time take some snapshots of yourself, your mother, Nell’s family, and Eck and send them to me. I don’t want to forget what all of you look like. No danger of that though for I think of all of you too often.

Darling—take care of yourself and don’t worry about me. I will be all right. Where I am there is very little that can happen to me. I am safer here than in an airplane. Think of it that way.

Remember that I love you with all of my heart and I miss you very much. It seems like a long time but it will pass and then we can be together again and maybe find that there is happiness left in the world for us.

Bye for now.

After a bleak Christmas—made slightly cheerier by the ninety-two Christmas cards he received from the San Francisco area, thanks to the kind suggestion of the influential columnist Herb Caen—my father allowed himself to believe that the new Kennedy administration might push for his release. He wrote in his journal:

On New Year’s Day my cell mate translated the toast of Khrushchev to me. In it he stated that with the going of the old year and the government of the US and the coming of the new he thought it best to forget the U-2 Incident so that there might be better relations between the two countries. This toast of Khrushchev’s set my hopes going. I kept thinking that it would be very hard for both countries to forget the incident with me still in prison. My cell mate was also very optimistic. He has always said I wouldn’t be here too long. 40

In a letter to Barbara dated January 16, 1961, he said, “I have great hopes of something very important happening soon. I don’t want to build up your hopes but it is entirely possible that I could be released in the near future.” 41

Toward the end of the month, in a letter to his parents, he said, “I heard some excellent news on the radio this morning. The two Americans from the [R]B-47 have been released. It could have only been better if I had been with them but our cases were a little different. I am very happy for them and their families and I wish them the best. I personally think my chances of being released early are very good in view of the policy the new government has adopted.” 42

At about the same time, Oliver was writing to his son about the same news. Their letters crossed in transit. “If you could have been with them,” he said, “my heart would have been so glad.” 43

When Frank learned that the Kennedy White House was doing nothing publicly to push for his release, his spirits sank. But this was not his only reason for despair. He was desperately worried about his wife and beginning to wonder about the future of his marriage, which could be seen in his twelfth letter to Barbara:

March 1, 1961

Dearest Barbara,

Today they returned a letter to me that I had mailed to you on the 23rd of February. It seems I am not supposed to tell you about my cellmate. This means that you won’t get a letter from me mailed in the month of February. I only wrote the one and it was returned and this one is to replace it.

I guess you know that I haven’t received any mail from you since the twenty sixth of January. The one I received then was written by you on the ninth of January. I would like to know what is wrong that you aren’t writing. If you don’t want to write just say so and then I will not expect letters from you. As it is, each day I am waiting for a letter and when it doesn’t come then I am very disappointed. Don’t you think my situation is bad enough without you making it worse?

When I don’t hear from you for a long time I get very despondent and start imagining all sorts of things. You could be dead for all I know. I think your mother would have enough consideration for me to tell me if anything were wrong with you. I hope so anyway.

If it weren’t for my mother and sisters I would not have received any mail at all in Feb. Thank goodness they care enough for me to write.

I guess you thought I stood a chance of being released with the RB 47 boys. I also thought this but we were mistaken. Things don’t look near so bright any more. In fact it will probably be a long time before chances will be as good again as they were then. If they hadn’t been here then maybe it would have been me.

I would like for you to start sending some magazines again also some books. Send anything you think I would like. I haven’t received any of the magazines they told me they would give me starting in January.

Maybe you could get the Embassy to do this and save yourself a lot of trouble and also custom duties. Also you could have the Embassy cut the number of cartons of cigarettes to three a month. I have accumulated several cartons and don’t need so many.

I would also like to have some more pictures if you have any. I only have the two that were taken at Nell’s in November.

Why hasn’t Nell answered my letter? Do you know? Tell her and Fred I said hello and hope they are fine. I’ll bet the children are growing. I know I wouldn’t recognize Tammy Gay.

Barbara, I want you to send my father one thousand dollars as soon after the receipt of this letter as possible. I am sure you have it available.

It was a very big disappointment to me to learn that Kennedy stated in one of his press conferences that my situation had not been discussed when the SU and US officials discussed the release of the other two pilots. I don’t know why but I expected them to discuss it whether or not anything was done about it.

Darling, I want you to write more often. I have only received eight letters from you since you left Moscow in August. That is eight letters in seven months. Not a very good average no matter how a person looks at it. I expected and wanted you to write more without my having to ask you.

It certainly appears that you don’t think very much of me if the number of letters are any judge. I can’t imagine what you could be doing that occupies so much of your time so that you can not spare thirty minutes or so a week to write. I can only think that you don’t want to write because I know you have the time.

I want you to be sure and start numbering each letter so that I can tell if any of them are lost or missing. Maybe there was one on the plane that crashed in Belgium. Only you know that.

Barbara, I am very sorry to have had to say so much about letters but I am very worried. You apparently don’t realize how much mail from you means to me. The receipt of a letter is the only bright spot in my life. I am not begging you to write. I only want letters from you if you want to write them. If you do not want to write me then please let me know so that I won’t worry when no letters arrive.

I guess that is about all for now. Please answer soon and remember I love you very much and can’t help worrying when I don’t hear from you.

P.S. I don’t know when this will be mailed. No one has been around to pick up mail for the last two days. I have asked someone to come today but so far no one.

P.S.S. I also need some stationery. 44

Around this time, he addressed his feelings about Barbara in his journal:

I was almost sick with worry and I was extremely nervous and not able to sleep at all because my mind would not relax. (My cell mate put up with much during this time). It turned out that I had no need to be worried at all. On March 11th I received a letter from my wife with no mention at all of the fact that she had waited 45 days. (I know there was no letter in between because I had asked her and she said she would send me a copy of Kennedy’s inauguration speech and she enclosed it in this February 21st letter. One month and one day after the speech was in the paper she mailed it to me. If she had written earlier she would have sent it for it was dated Jan. 20). She, in her letter, started as if she had only written the week before, mentioned she had been visiting relatives in North Carolina and had found someone, for the first time since May, to bowl and play golf with. Her letter jumped from one subject to another as if she couldn’t think of anything to write or as if she were only performing a very unpleasant duty and anything would do to fill up the pages.