All language subtitles for A.Cold.War.of.Spies.2of4.Spies.in.the.Skies.1080p.HDTV.x264

The Cold War era saw the creation
of invaluable technologies

that pushed engineering, physics,
and space exploration

to new heights, but at what cost?

We often think of the secondary
purpose as being the military one,

when really the military one
was the primary purpose.

As nations become uncomfortably
aware that they are in the midst

of a new kind of conflict,
the need to keep a watchful eye

in the sky becomes
increasingly evident.

Importance of radar is key
because that's how you know

when there's an incoming aircraft
or missile into your territory.

Spies soaring over enemy airspace
or tasked with

some of the most important
and dangerous jobs of all.

The Soviet Union was extremely
defensive of its airspace

and would try to shoot down
any airplanes

that came into the Soviet Union.

But cloak-and-dagger activities
on the ground are far from over.

Was this a Soviet innovation that
they had worked on over the years

or was this from espionage?

After World War II,
emerging superpowers stand

on the brink of utter destruction
while spies work to control

entire nations in the shadows.

As the Cold War deepens,
paranoia persists.

In a world of double agents,

sleeper cells, and cover networks,
trust is impossible

and threats are everywhere.

It's the early decades
of the Cold War

and the east and west find themselves
in a deadlock

with the fate of their people
and perhaps the world

hanging in the balance.

Within a decade,
the whole military threat

changes so incredibly.

The stakes just got a lot higher
and a lot more dangerous.

Everyone's just sitting
back and thinking, OK,

so, what's the next step now?

For the USSR,
this is all about Russian survival.

After having suffered catastrophic
invasions over the centuries,

geopolitical expansion by any means
is the only way to avoid

reliving the past.

But after the Second World War,
ridiculous losses

really take a bite out
of the Soviet state,

both in terms of manpower
and economy.

Over 20 million deaths.

The Russian position

was that the Second World War
was won with British stubbornness,

American money, and Soviet blood,

and that was where
the Iron Curtain gets strong.

The most valuable currency
in the Cold War era

is not firepower, but information.

A lot of the intelligence
that's going on at this time

is about trying to detect
really the military capabilities

of the other.

So, far, the Soviets are the experts

in extracting intel from their
enemies through espionage.

So, the United States
and the United Kingdom,

although they did have spies
operating in the USSR,

had nothing like the networks
of human intelligence agents

that were being run
against them at home.

The Americans are relatively
new to the spy game

and are realising
a growing problem -

penetrating the Iron Curtain to
gather intel is incredibly difficult.

It's a very closed,
tightly regulated society

where people are themselves
vigilant.

This made it very difficult
to have spies operating in Moscow

or elsewhere in the Soviet Union.

The US and the USSR must develop
new methods of reconnaissance

to stay on top.

In the Cold War spy race,

the United States was far ahead
of the Soviet Union

when it came to science
and technology,

and especially in things like
aerial reconnaissance.

Both sides will seek
to one up the other publicly

while keeping their greatest
technological feats

close to the vest.

Technology is moving so quickly
at this point.

It really is constantly
a game of catch-up.

The outcomes of this stage
of the war will result

in breakthroughs in science
and engineering.

But for the opposition,
these achievements will spread

more fear than joy.

At the beginning of the Cold War,
allied forces turned enemies

when the USSR launched targeted
spy missions against the West.

The goal?

Obtain access to top-secret
information on nuclear weapons.

Despite great efforts
to protect national secrets,

US laboratories had been infiltrated
by highly skilled Soviet spy rings.

Formulas and blueprints were now
in the hands of Soviet scientists.

The atomic playing field
had been levelled.

What happens when you have
two nations that have this

now incredibly deadly weapon

that a couple years earlier
was completely a dream?

Is this something

that is going to turn the world
into a nuclear wasteland?

Now that the US and the USSR
are armed with nuclear weapons,

the stakes are perilously high.

The only deterrence
to pushing the button

is the fear that the opposition
is capable

of equal or greater devastation

resulting in mutually assured
destruction.

Both sides were so powerful
that if one side were to try

to destroy the other,
they could be guaranteed or assured

that they themselves
would be destroyed.

That deadlock, I believe, is what
really kept the Cold War cold.

The goal of international espionage
shifts from stealing formulas

to keeping a watchful eye
behind enemy lines

and predicting potential attacks.

Knowing where there are weapons,
where there are planes,

where there are other facilities
within enemy territory.

Both the United States
and the Soviet Union

are in a constant state
of preparedness.

The efforts move more
to surveillance.

The best way to do this
is from above.

Americans know their talent
in aircraft engineering is unmatched,

so resources are funnelled

into developing a new long-range,
subsonic, jet-powered bomber the B-52

and the shorter ranger B-47.

The Soviets are busy observing
the skies from below,

making sure everything they consider
Soviet airspace,

including some places they wish
to be, remain clear.

The thing about the Soviet Union
is that it is so wide.

They amassed all sorts of territory
during the Second World War,

and so their borders extended.

That leaves them quite vulnerable
to attacks.

The Americans have a great
advantage in the number of partners

that they have,
regional partners that, in effect,

that allows them to encapsulate
the Soviet Union.

Turkey, a country that has long acted

like a bridge between
the east and the west.

It is also home to a key strip
of land

the Soviets had hoped to own
for quite some time.

Despite Turkey being home to a den

of German spies
during World War II,

the country's neutrality during
the war blocked Germany's access

to the Middle East,

aiding the allies without becoming
active combatants.

However, pre-existing tensions
between the Soviet Union and Turkey

are intensified when Turkey
is given control

of two internationally significant
waterways in the north-west

known as the Turkish Straits.

The Straits offer
an important connection

between the Aegean and Mediterranean
seas to the Black Sea.

I imagine for Turkey
it's almost a delicate dance

of allying yourself
to the superpower next door

with the knowledge that you possess
some valuable assets geopolitically.

Tensions in the regions rise
when Turkey refuses to institute

joint military control
of the passage.

This isn't the first time Russian
relations with allies

have turned rotten,
and it won't be the last.

Japan - a significantly
smaller country.

This island nation has historically
had a competitive relationship

with the Soviet Union with
political conflicts dating back

to the competition of the Japanese
and Soviet empires

for dominance of North-east Asia.

In World War II,

the Soviet Union stationed spies
in Japan to gather information

about the activities of
the Japanese and German governments.

One of those spies was a man
named Richard Sorge,

a German journalist and Soviet
military intelligence officer.

Sorge was sent to work as a press
officer in the German embassy

in Tokyo, where he headed
a successful Soviet spy ring.

He was responsible for gathering
valuable intelligence,

including details on the timing
of Adolf Hitler's invasion

of the Soviet Union

and Japan's plans to remain neutral
in the conflict.

His cover was eventually blown.

He was tortured, forced to confess
to espionage, tried and hung.

Stalin declined to intervene.

This contentious relationship
continues into the Cold War

as Japan occupies a distinct role
with Western allies

and communist enemies.

The Cold War really engulfed
all these countries.

When you look at Tokyo in Japan,

there is no option
to remain neutral.

Do we tolerate a foreign power
and control from our neighbour,

which would mean almost certain
territorial expansion,

or do we tolerate it from a foreign
power that's kind of far away?

Accepting military bases or
accepting support from either one

will then put us at odds
with the other superpower.

During the Cold War,
both Japan and Turkey draw lines

in the sand when it comes
to the Soviet Union.

They turn to the US for assistance.

Both are provided support

through the Mutual Defence
Assistance Program,

a program established
by the United States

in the late 1940s to provide
military and economic aid

to its allies in the face of the
growing threat from the Soviet Union.

The Soviet expansion following
the Second World War was very much

that sense of not having power.

And linked to that is the sense
that they are a superior nation.

They can take over
these smaller countries.

The MDAP provides Turkey and Japan
with supplies and services

to strengthen their defences.

Both countries play a role in
the containment of Soviet expansion

in their respective regions.

US military operations
are established

in Japan, Turkey and Pakistan,

not only to protect them
from being overtaken,

but to establish footholds in greater
proximity to their adversary.

A lot of that comes out of actually
signals intelligence

because they need listening posts
that are close to the Soviet Union.

So, if you can't go
inside the Soviet Union,

you want to get as much information

that's coming out
of the Soviet Union,

and that includes
their electric signals.

So, when they're sending
radio signals,

when they're doing missile tests,

when you're looking at the telemetry
of the rockets

or the communications
with the planes,

the West can take advantage
of listening posts

in different parts of the world.

Those same bases allow them
to surround the Soviets Union

with basically guns to the head

and to represent
a sizeable military threat

that the Soviets really can't match.

Despite gaining allies and ground,

the US is still hesitant
to fly into Soviet airspace.

What would the Soviets do to American
pilots caught flying overhead?

How far had their technology
advanced

and how high could they fly?

One thing the US can be sure of

is that the Soviets possess
radar technologies

that they had obtained
in World War II.

When the US and the USSR
were still allies

in the fight against Nazi Germany,

the Soviets were able to obtain
access

to advanced Western technology,

including radar systems
through joint military projects,

technical exchanges,
and intelligence gathering.

This sharing of information

would backfire on the US
during the Cold War

now that the Soviet Union was able
to further advance

the very radar systems
used to spot US planes.

The Soviet Union was pouring
so much money

into military technology.

The importance of radar is key

because that's how you know
when there's an incoming aircraft

or missile into your territory.

By 1951, Stalin is feeling pressured
to pressure to protect

the northern and eastern borders.

He orders the construction
of a long-range interceptor

capable of countering
potential attacks.

The result is a two-speed twin-engine
jet fighter, the Yak-120.

It's predecessors are only
more fierce.

The Yak-25M is an incredible
all-weather interceptor

with an impressive range.

The Yak-25RV boasts an impressive
altitude ceiling

to perform high altitude
reconnaissance spy missions

during the Cold War.

Both would be successful
in catching US pilots off guard.

These interceptor aircraft play
a very important role

during the 1950s because
the primary threat

was the nuclear weapons would be
dropped by aircraft from the enemy.

And so you needed to create
the interceptors

to be able to prevent those bombers

from getting access
to your territory.

Stalin was deeply worried about
any penetration of Soviet airspace

by American aircraft
or any aircraft really.

And so the Soviet Union was
extremely defensive of its airspace

and would try to shoot down
any airplanes

that came into the Soviet Union.

By the 1950s, Soviet air defences

are aggressively attacking
offending aircraft,

but the threat of Soviet fire
extends beyond their clear borders

as even those in Japanese airspace
seem to be at risk.

On June 13, 1952,

American pilot Major Sam Busch
and his crew

take off from Yokota Air Base
in Honshu, Japan.

Their mission?

Survey shipping activity
in the Sea of Japan.

Three hours later, contact is lost.

The aircraft never returns to base.

What happened to the crew
in that three-hour window?

With no survivors
or wreckage found,

the event remains shrouded in mystery

until a revealing memo
is released in 1993.

It wasn't until 40 years later

that archival documents
in the Soviet Union revealed

that Stalin knew the Soviet Union
had shot down this airplane.

The US now know their current
aircraft, the Boeing RB-47,

can't evade current Soviet radar
or outmanoeuvre their latest planes,

the Yak-25RV or MiG-17.

To gain access above enemy lines,

they would need to develop
something that could.

In 1954, the US approved
a secret CIA program

to build a special purpose high
altitude reconnaissance aircraft -

codename Aquatone.

Project Aquatone is really
a signature of the CIA.

It's a pretty new agency
created in 1947,

and it is given a preponderant
amount of authority.

So, showing its power,

the CIA, with the Eisenhower
Administration's blessing,

is able to go to corporations,

Lockheed in particular, and say,
"Can you build something?"

And of course they say, "For sure.

"How much money
are you going to give it?"

And they form a very cosy union,

which in effect becomes
this first step

in the military industrial complex.

This is the beginning of a very,
very close relationship

between US Intelligence, represented
chiefly by the CIA, and corporate.

A covert team from the top-secret
Lockheed Skunk Works division

begins work on an aircraft

with the endurance to overfly
the Soviet Union.

This will usher in a secret,
game-changing aircraft

that will become legend, the U-2.

The man in charge of it all
is Sergeant Kelly Johnson.

It has an extremely long range.

It flies at a very high altitude

to almost outer space.

It's right at the edge.

The pilot has to wear
almost like a space suit,

a pressurised suit.

Beyond the targeting capability

of anti-aircraft systems
in the Soviet Union,

almost beyond the capability
of detection at first.

As well, it's equipped with a camera
that has high definition capability

for aerial photography.

This was because the purpose
of the plane wasn't to attack.

It was to gather information.

It had no onboard weapons.

It was purely
a reconnaissance aircraft.

The ultimate goal of the U-2 is to
photograph Soviet military bases

so the US can keep track
of their enemies' arsenals.

They've been caught off guard
by their enemies in the past

in the attack on Pearl Harbour.

This time, they would be prepared.

For the Americans,
there was the fear of the unknown.

They know that there's
nuclear weapons,

but they don't know how many.

Did they have a lot of missiles
as Khrushchev was claiming

or did they not?

So, it gave the US the ability
to really kind of survey

the Soviet Union at a safe distance

and also try to map out

where their missile silos
were actually located.

You're also simultaneously trying
to listen to the Soviets,

trying to understand how
they scramble, how they respond.

So, the U-2 is quite complex.

In the 1950s, Edwin Land
from the Polaroid Corporation

and James Baker from Harvard

collaborate on a special project
to develop a camera lens

capable of stereoscopic photographs
for recon missions.

The Hycon model cameras

are the first high altitude
optical surveillance systems.

They enable the US to observe global
hotspots in astonishing detail,

helping to maintain military balance
in the Cold War.

It represents the cutting edge
of US technological capacity.

All of that R&D - research and
development - that we talk about

is much better supported
in a free enterprise economy.

Those incentives don't really exist
in a socialist state.

In July 1955 at the Geneva Summit,

President Eisenhower proposed
the Open Skies treaty

permitting countries to make
over-flights of one another

to conduct mutual aerial inspections
of nuclear facilities.

The proposal was outright rejected
by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

And of course,
Khrushchev is worried not

about the Americans finding out

that he has this robust
missile system.

He's worried the Americans
are going to find out

that he has no robust
missile system.

He's been lying.

With no Open Skies Treaty in place,

investments into the U-2 spy plane
program are more important than ever.

Germany.

Historically, it posed a major threat
to its Russian neighbours.

During the Cold War, the country is
divided into two separate states,

the Federal Republic of Germany
in the west,

and the German Democratic Republic
in the east.

The division was agreed upon
by the Allied powers,

including the United States,
the United Kingdom, France,

and the Soviet Union.

In 1949, through political
and military means,

Joseph Stalin gained control
over Eastern Germany,

turning it into a Soviet zone
and communist state.

In August 1955, the U-2 was finally
ready to fly

and capable of reaching a ceiling
of 70,000 feet,

a height that should be out of reach
to the Soviets.

The U-2 leaves from West Germany

flown by Air Force Pilot
Hervey Stockman.

American officials hold their breath
in anticipation

as the U-2 captures photographs
over a USSR airfield

over the south-west of Leningrad.

Well, you can imagine
the kind of anxiety

that's probably going through
those pilots' minds.

They're flying over enemy territory

where they know other people
have been shot down.

Intercepted radio transmissions
alert US officials

that Soviet interceptors are in
the air and approaching the U-2.

They are shocked to learn
that the Soviets are able

to intermittently track them
even at 70,000 feet.

So, while the Americans
are developing their U-2 spy plane,

the Soviets are developing
their radar capabilities.

They're developing their rocket
technology, their missile defence.

However, the MiG-17s and the Soviets'
surface-to-air missiles

cannot reach the U-2's
impressive height.

I would imagine the Soviets
would be feeling pretty vulnerable

at that time that all of a sudden
now the United States

has the capability to observe
you at a safe distance

and you can't do anything about it.

Throughout the four-year
over-flight period,

U-2 aircraft were launched
from Germany, Japan, Pakistan,

Turkey, and Alaska.

By continually observing,
you get more information

about essentially what's normal
for the Soviets

so that you start to understand
what's not normal

and then what could potentially be
a first strike coming your way.

There was the question of, "What do
we do if this is discovered?

"How do we cover ourselves

"when we're doing something
that's undiplomatic?"

It was illegal under international
law, so it had to be done secretly.

It had to have plausible deniability

so that the president could say,

"No, this isn't something
that I had authorised."

So, the backdrop for all of these
U-2 overflights is pretty basic.

You're going to say that
they're misguided planes

who are really up there to test
atmosphere.

They're weather planes.

Now, the Soviets aren't going
to buy that for a second.

That's really important.

So, that's for cover and that's
for international consumption,

for the American public's
consumption.

But Moscow's not stupid.

Everybody in Moscow knows
that these are spy planes.

The frustration for them

is that they do not have
the technical capacity to get them.

And so the Soviets,
embarrassed by the fact

that the Americans
can fly over their country,

don't say anything about
the U-2 over-flights

because it would only reveal
their own weakness.

And instead, they start to think
about ways

they can deal with these planes
on their own.

Knowing these flights were
going on and unable to stop them,

the Kremlin is furious.

Their anger grows in 1956 as a U-2
plane flies directly over Moscow.

Pilot Carmine Vito departs from his
station at Wiesbaden in West Germany

and soars over a network

of newly built air defences
that ring the city.

The camera produced incredible
images of the Fili airframe plant

where Soviets were building
their first jet bomber, the Bison,

a bomber arsenal in Ramenskoye,
a rocket engine plant in Khimki,

and a missile plant in Kaliningrad.

Even while it was flying
at these extremely high altitudes,

its camera could take pictures
with such remarkable resolution

that analysts could see what was
actually happening on the ground.

They could actually count
the number and type of aircraft

they saw at airports.

They could see the building
of missile launch sites.

It was an incredible piece
of technology.

But when the US seemed
to have the upper hand,

the Soviets would shock them
and the entire world.

On October 4, 1957,
the Soviets launched Sputnik,

the world's first
artificial satellite

and the first man-made object to be
placed into the Earth's orbit.

This comes as a shock
to Western powers

because it seemingly
comes out of nowhere.

It may have triggered
a range of emotions in people.

Some people may have doubted
what they were seeing as being real.

"Was this actually happening?"

And I think for others it may have
been a sense of surprise and shock

that the Soviet Union
was able to pull this off.

And, more importantly,
pull it off before the Americans.

And of course the Russians
are super proud of it

and very, very happy,
and the Americans are devastated.

What does this mean
for surveillance on one side?

What does this mean for
military weapons on the other?

Because this is rocket technology.

Sending up a satellite had enormous
geopolitical consequences

for the Cold War.

The fact that the USSR could send
a satellite into space

meant that it was very far along
in the technology it needed

to send ballistic missiles
into space,

missiles that could fire nuclear
warheads tremendous distances

across the globe.

It meant that soon the United States

would be in range of the Soviet
nuclear weapons.

(SIREN WAILS)

Where you may have had hours
of awareness

that a Russian bomber was headed
your way with a nuclear missile,

you're starting to get
into the realm

where you now have minutes.

In 1954, the Soviets wanted to build
an intercontinental rocket

capable of carrying a hydrogen bomb
to any point on the planet.

To do so, they would need to build

something that could travel
further, faster,

and withstand more force
than ever before.

The design of the R-7
was based on the V-2 rocket,

a weapon used during World War II.

The only people in the world
with the knowledge and experience

to build such a device were former
scientists from Nazi Germany.

At the end of the Second World War,
there was a scramble by the Soviets

and the Americans and the British

to round up any
of the Nazi scientists

that had been working on really high
technology projects during the war.

The Americans realised
that they needed to get a jumpstart

on rocket technology.

Before the end of World War II
in 1945,

US President Harry S Truman
authorised a secret program

called Operation Paperclip.

Until the late 1950s, more than
1,500 German scientists, engineers,

and technicians,

many of whom had been members
of the Nazi party,

were brought to the United States
for employment

in military and civilian research
programs.

They made a deal
with those scientists.

They wouldn't be subjected
to punishment for what they did

in the Second World War
in exchange for providing help

for the Americans to develop
their own technology.

One of these scientists
was Wernher von Braun.

Von Braun is a German engineer
and scientist

who helped lead the development of
the V-2 rocket during World War II.

He's brought into the US Army
Ballistic Missile Agency,

where he was instrumental
in several US accomplishments

during the space race.

He helped develop
the Redstone rocket,

which was used to launch America's
first satellite Explorer 1 in 1958

and later the development
of the Saturn V rocket

used to send Apollo astronauts
to the moon.

The way that scientists
are treated or recruited

is actually really reflective
of the Cold War ideology.

Well, the Soviet method is much
more brutal and forceful

with lots of threat.

In 1946, more than 2,500 former Nazi
German scientists and engineers

along with 4,000 family members
were transported

by the Soviet Army to Russia
in a joint mission

with the Ministry
of Internal Affairs.

The launch of Sputnik exacerbates
longstanding fears

that the US is trailing behind the
USSR in ballistic missile technology.

It immediately becomes huge
international public attention

about how the Americans
have proverbially dropped the ball,

how they're now behind
the Russians in technology.

It's not true, but the public
becomes obsessed with that,

particularly in the US.

There was this real fear
and sense of despair

that somehow the United States
and its people had been let down,

that science and technology
and learning in the US

was somehow pale in comparison

to what was happening
in the Soviet Union.

So, it led to a lot of
soul-searching in the United States.

How can the United States do better?

The bold move by the USSR
launched both countries

into a very public competition

to prove their technological
superiority

by developing artificial
satellites, unmanned space probes,

and, ultimately, human space flight.

The common fear was the nation
that dominated space

could dominate the earth.

President Eisenhower in the United
States is under real pressure

to show that the United States
can catch up

to these gains that the Soviet Union
has made in space.

And so he declares
the creation of NASA.

In July 1958, President Eisenhower
signed

the National Aeronautics
and Space Act, creating the agency.

Not only does this facilitate
further space exploration,

but it would prove a useful excuse

for future suspicious
aerial activity.

People who have been working
on the rocket program before that

had been begging for funds,
but then, after Sputnik,

they were given as much funding
as they wanted.

When these technologies
are being developed,

we often think of the secondary
purpose as being the military one,

when really the military one
was the primary purpose.

The secondary purpose
was the civilian one

because that's really
what drove the creation

of a lot of these technologies -

is finding ways to attack somebody
else more efficiently,

more destructively, and faster.

And then beyond that, it is of
course about national pride,

and that is part of the game
of the Cold War, right?

You're trying to win hearts
and minds as the expression goes.

So, you want to look tough
and strong.

You want to be the first
and the best at something.

And so what better demonstration
could you have

than being the first ever people
to go to the moon?

That must have been an incredible
period of time,

of excitement, of purpose.

And remember, this is during
the civil rights movement.

So, the whole space race
and the public excitement

for it was something
that's unifying.

The fight for space dominance
captivates the world

while the US and the USSR
are perfecting

their rocket and missile technology.

Pakistan - a country caught
between Soviet and US forces

shifting with the changing
geopolitical climate.

On May 1, 1960, American pilot
Francis Gary Powers

flew a U-2 espionage mission
to take photographs

of the secretive
Soviet ICBM development program.

Powers leaves from northern Pakistan

and heads towards the Soviet Union.

Despite belief that Soviet missiles

can't reach the cruising heights
of the U-2,

he is shot down
over the Ural Mountains.

Each time the other side
gets a technological advantage,

it causes anxiety for the enemy.

And so the Soviet response
to the U-2 was,

"We have to figure out a way
to counter this threat."

So, the Soviet Union began

a very quick research
and development project

for better surface-to-air missiles -
or SAMs.

On May 1, that weapon is what
locks onto the U-2 spy plane.

The first missile explodes
near the plane,

forcing it to drop
to a lower altitude.

The second is a direct hit.

This is irrevocable proof that
the Soviets had finally caught up

to U-2 technology, but how?

Was this a Soviet innovation
that they had worked on

over the years?

Was this from German scientists?

Or was this from espionage

and an understanding
of how the U-2 plane operated?

In 1958, a CIA source working
in the USSR reveals

that Soviet intelligence
had obtained vital information

on the American's top-secret plane.

How did the CIA learn
of this vital information leak?

And who was the informant?

In 1953, a GRU officer named
Pyotr Semyonovich Popov

was stationed in Vienna.

Fuelled by a deep anger at the Soviet
government's treatment of peasants,

Popov's allegiance flips

and he sees an opportunity to begin
working for the other side.

To make his intentions known,

Popov slips a note
into the parked car

of an American diplomat that reads:

The letter is passed onto the leader
of the CIA's Vienna base.

In the letter,

Popov outlined details
for a meeting with the CIA.

It's a nightmare for any desk
officer in an embassy

when a guy comes in and says,
"I want to spy for you."

"Whoa! You want to spy for me or you
want to spy against us from inside?"

It's a bit of a catch-22
because in one sense

you're very apprehensive about it
because it could be a ploy.

So, it's a risky endeavour,
but it's also one

that you can't really turn down.

You have to actually entertain

that maybe they really do
want to help us.

How do you come to trust somebody
who's a spy to begin with

and then offers their services
as a double agent?

That's innately
untrustworthy, isn't it?

So, what they'd be doing with Popov
is essentially testing his access,

testing his knowledge,

giving him little tasks
to see if he'll complete them.

And if he completes a small task,
you give him a slightly bigger task.

And if he's able to continually
complete these tasks,

he's starting to prove
that he's serious,

his intelligence collection is good.

If you can assess that
and verify it, corroborate it,

you give him more.

Popov is vetted and becomes
the first GRU officer

to offer his services to the CIA.

He takes on the role
of a double agent

continuing to pose as a GRU officer
while leaking intel to the CIA.

If I'm not mistaken, he's
the highest ranking GRU official

ever to work for the Americans.

And as a military intelligence
man himself,

he was privy to all sorts
of information.

So, he is a really important asset.

Popov's handler is CIA officer
George Kisevalter,

a Russian-speaking
CIA officer in Vienna.

The pair pass information
through third-party couriers.

When passing documents,
Popov and the courier would wear

a distinct pair of gold cuff links
to identify themselves.

Each time the documents
and the cuff links

would make their way back
to Kisevalter

who would decipher the intel.

In 1955, the Soviets sent Popov
to East Berlin

to work with their illegal agents
being sent to the West.

While there,
Popov hears a senior KGB officer

boasting about having
full technical details

on the US Lockheed U-2 spy plane.

In 1958, Popov passes on the message
to Kisevalter.

We do know that Popov
pays for this.

He's compromised and executed.

It's now clear that
the Soviet Union has access

to a tremendous level of detail
about the U-2 and how it works.

But where did they get
this information?

People have argued that there
were leaks within the US military,

including the U-2 program itself,

that may have led the Russians

to dramatically and quickly
improve their capability,

both radar and also their
ground-to-air defence systems.

Assuming Powers is dead

and with the hope of protecting
the secrecy of the U-2 program,

President Eisenhower uses
the cover story

that the U-2 had been conducting
routine weather flights

when a malfunction caused it
to drift into Soviet airspace.

Although the sensitive cameras
and information in the U-2

was supposed to be destroyed

if the plane crashed
or was shot down,

a lot of the technology and Powers
actually survived being shot down.

The pilot was given
a suicide device.

If by any chance he gets shot down,
he has to kill himself.

When the plane is shot down,

he ejects successfully
from the plane,

but declines the privilege

of committing suicide
for the United States,

which the United States
does not know.

Powers is captured by the Russians

and his aerial camera system
is recovered, mostly intact.

This proves that the weather survey
story is a coverup.

This of course is a disaster
for the Americans

because the plane's supposed
to disintegrate and so is the pilot.

He's supposed to be dead,
leave no evidence.

There's plausible deniability.

The Americans know the plane is
missing and of course they panic.

It doesn't show up in Norway

and they start to say, "What are
we going to do about this plane?"

And the Russians cleverly keep
it a secret that they have Powers.

And so once Powers doesn't appear
anywhere in the next 24, 48 hours,

Americans either think
that he died in a crash

or he did what he was supposed
to do - he committed suicide.

And so now they release this story

that there was a problem
in the oxygen system,

and that he became disoriented
on the weather operation in Turkey

and drifted across Turkish border
and crashed in Russia.

And then the next day
the Russians trot out Powers.

"Here he is,
your 'weather plane pilot'.

"And by the way, here's the camera
and all the footage that he shot

"of our military installations."

Suddenly the Americans
were now face-to-face

with the reality that they had been
fearing for years -

that they would be caught out.

Now, how do they deal
with this diplomatically?

Eisenhower is forced to admit

that the US had been flying
spy missions over the USSR

for several years.

The timing couldn't be worse.

Leading up to the crash,

there had been a process
referred to as detente,

which were negotiations
between the US and the USSR.

Both Eisenhower and Khrushchev

are scheduled to attend
the Paris Summit

to discuss the easing of tensions
between their two countries.

So, all of this is on the line,

and that's what makes
the U-2 episode so important

because now the Russians
are faced with

a really huge dilemma.

"Do we reveal this to the world

"that we've caught an American pilot
and a spy plane,

"in which case we walk away
from all of that opportunity.

"We walk away from potentially
the end of the Cold War."

Khrushchev, I think he agonised
over it to some degree,

but he eventually decides
to out the Americans

and to go very public with it.

It puts an end to detente,
it puts an end to negotiation.

And for Khrushchev,
he takes a hard turn.

He becomes a hardliner as it were

because he has to worry about
his own regime.

What's more,
US citizens are now aware

that their government
hasn't been entirely forthright

about its activities
in foreign countries.

It was the first kind of disconnect
with the broader American public

that a president can actually tell
a blatant lie that way.

They always presented themselves
as on the defensive.

"We're containing communism.
We're not the aggressors here."

Americans had to wonder

whether the United States was
totally innocent in this Cold War

or whether it was provoking
the Soviet Union

at least some of the time.

Russian engineers reverse
engineered their version of the U-2,

known as Beriev S-13, using parts
from the top-secret plane.

The remnants are eventually placed
in a museum in Moscow

as proof of the public deceit.

The U-2 incident caused
a lot of finger pointing

between the Soviet Union
and the United States

as they both blamed each other
for being the first to spy.

Soviets could point
to the wreckage of the U-2

and the camera and Gary Powers,

but the United States
could point to something as well.

On day four of the
UN Security Council meetings

convened by the Soviet Union
over the U-2 incident,

US Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr

presents a wooden replica
of an American seal,

claiming it to be a bugging device
used by Soviet spies

to eavesdrop on conversations

in the Moscow residence of the US
Ambassador to the Soviet Union.

The US attempt to use this
as a defence

for their illegal over-flights
of the USSR.

The Americans can now turn around
and use the seal

as an example of Soviet trickery
and duplicity

and sneaky, covert actions against
Americans with good intentions.

In 1945 as World War II
is coming to an end,

schoolchildren
from the Vladimir Lenin

All-Union Pioneer Organisation

present the seal
to the new US Ambassador,

W Averell Harriman,
as a gift of friendship

seemingly to commemorate the success
against Nazi Germany.

It's a ceremony.

It's meant in the good faith
of culture.

Why would you necessarily suspect
that it's full of listening device?

You probably should, but they don't.

Here is the quintessential
Trojan horse.

It's a gift given by your enemy,
and it's not what you think it is.

This covert listening device
was created by Leon Theremin.

Leon Theremin is a Russian-born
inventor known around the world

for his invention
of a musical instrument

that can be played without being
touched, the theremin.

In 1939, with the Nazi threat
growing stronger,

Theremin decides to leave
his US home to return to Russia.

Upon arrival,
he is implicated as a traitor

and sentenced to hard labour
in the country's Gulag system.

Less than a year later,
he is brought to Moscow

to work at a sharashka,

one of several secret Soviet research
and development laboratories.

There he creates
a covert listening device

that would go on to puzzle
and impress the world.

What was so ingenious about
this particular listening device

was that it was wireless.

It was built totally into the seal.

Disguised as decor,

it hangs on the wall of the
ambassador's residential study

for five years before it's detected
by sheer accident.

And then the Americans kept
this discovery in their back pocket,

ready to use it when they need it.

On August 19, 1960,
Powers was convicted of espionage

and could face death.

Instead, Powers proves
a useful bargaining chip

and is sentenced to prison.

While Powers is held by the Soviets,

a disgruntled KGB agent decides
to defect

and offers intel to the CIA
in exchange for his safety.

Part of his deal involves giving
up his former partner,

high-level spy Rudolf Abel.

Abel's work is vital to helping
the USSR create their atomic weapons.

Abel denies any acts of espionage
even after his capture,

but damning evidence
found in his hotel room

proves the US's suspicions.

The Soviets want their agent back

and agree to strike a deal
for his return.

On February 10, 1962,
at the Glienicke Bridge

between Potsdam and West Berlin,
Abel is exchanged for Powers

in what would be the first
US-USSR spy swap of the Cold War.

The day before Powers is sentenced,

the US launches the CORONA 14 KH-19,
or Keyhole-1,

the first successful US spy satellite
as part of the CORONA program.

This marks a significant advancement
in US reconnaissance capabilities.

So, gone now our worries
about aircraft being shot down

or spies being discovered.

Here instead is a spy lens
looking down from above the earth.

And right here we see how quickly
the technology is shifting

and symbolically how one chapter
of spying and surveillance is ending

and how another chapter
is beginning.

The camera on the Keyhole satellite
captures images of the earth below,

recording them on film that is housed
in a re-entry capsule.

The CORONA program collectively
identifies over 64 Soviet airfields.

It proves the Soviets had deployed

only a handful of intercontinental
ballistic missiles.

The startling news disproves
the once-feared missile gap.

They were able to alleviate
a lot of their own fears.

By the time the first CORONA
successfully flew in August 1960,

the Soviets were already
designing their own spy satellite,

the Zenith satellites,
to fly over the United States.

Once the Americans developed
this ability to spy via satellites,

the Soviets need to match it
as well.

The Soviet satellites were able
to provide remarkable images

of the Earth's surface,

and the Soviets were tasked with
taking pictures of cities.

The Soviet Union would map over
2,000 cities around the world

using images from the satellite,

and that included 120 cities
in the United States.

The maps that were created
continue to be useful

even after the Cold War
comes to a close.

Years after the Soviet Union
collapses,

the US, Russia and 22 other nations
signed the Open Skies Treaty,

allowing for mutual
aerial observation.

The treaty symbolically promise
some sort of peace,

some sort of cooperation.

Since the signing, both countries
have accused each other

of violating the provisions
of the treaty,

leading to its unravelling.

After several alleged infractions
in 2020,

President Donald Trump announced
a withdrawal from the treaty

banning Russian recon flights
over the US.

The following year,
Russia followed suit,

citing the inability
of member nations

to guarantee that information
would not be shared with the US.

So, with the United States
and Russia withdrawing

from the Open Skies Agreement,

we are getting back
to more of a Cold War mentality

where there isn't agreement
about over-flights,

and we see states being far more
protective of their own airspace.

The decision to pull out
of the Open Skies Treaty

brings up concerns and questions
about what this could mean

for global security going forward.

Is such a pact even relevant

in a time of high-tech
surveillance drones?

With satellite technology now,

everything is an open sky
around the globe.

Where it does mean something
is of course the bigger context.

It means that you're talking
to each other.

It means diplomacy.

It means that, in earnest, you're
actually concerned about tensions

that could lead us
all to Armageddon.