The year of 1960 proved to be a busy year for people at CIA’s DPD as they worked hard to establish a U-2 detachment in Taiwan. In his memoir, Jude Pao, former Operations Chief of the 35th Squadron, said that a US delegation, including a General Gerry, a Mr. Carter (who, according to Pao, later became US Postmaster General), John McMahon, Samuel Jackson, and others, came to Taiwan to survey the operating site in the spring of 1960.
Although Chris Pocock described this Mr. Carter as the leader of this group and as the “new DDCI” in his book 50 Years of the U-2, I think both Pao and Pocock were wrong. I could not find any Postmaster General named Carter and CIA would not have a DDCI called Carter until Marshall Carter took this position in April 1962. In 1960, Marshall Carter was the Chief of Staff of US Eighth Army in Korea.
Soviet citizens viewing the wreckage of the U-2 flown by Gary Powers. (Eisenhower Libarary)
Then, on May 1, 1960, the U-2 piloted by CIA’s Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union. This incident put the Japanese government under a lot of pressure from its citizens because CIA maintained its U-2 Detachment C at NAS Atsugi. Secretary of State Herter sent the following telegram to the US Embassy in Japan after the incident:
We know this is an outright lie because U-2 taking off from Japan had engaged in the reconnaissance overflight of China during the 1958 Taiwan Strait crisis. Anyway, the search for a suitable operating location in Taiwan for the proposed U-2 detachment continued. As of June 1960, the site had not been decided, as shown by the following memorendum:
The assurance from the US government could not save Detachment C. The two U-2 based at Atsugi were hastily removed and the staff packed their stuff in August. A week later, both the State Department and President Eisenhower approved CIA’s proposal to establish a U-2 detachment in Taiwan. The Powers incident might have indirectly facilitated the approval process.
