Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident is an autobiography written by Francis Gary Powers, detailing the story of his service in the CIA and the aftermath of the U-2 incident in May of 1960, in which he was shot down and captured by the Soviets, and his subsequent time in prison before being released in a prisoner swap.
Contains examples of the following tropes:
- The Alleged Car: The U-2 Powers is shot down in, Article 360, is infamous for having constant malfunctions that require it to be sent in for repair, then quickly developing another one. A previous incident resulted in it crashing in mud, with the pilot setting a record for flying a U-2 lower than anyone in history. On the day of Powers' flight, things started to go wrong when the plane's autopilot failed.
- Batman Gambit: Nikita Khrushchev pulls this by omitting the fact that Powers was alive and in custody when first announcing the shootdown. As expected, the CIA responded by denying that they sent Powers into the Soviet Union, at which point Khruschev reveals the full story.
Khrushchev: Comrades, I must tell you a secret: When I was making my report, I deliberately did not say that the pilot was alive and in good health and that we have got part of the plane. We did so deliberately, because had we told everything at once, the Americans would have invented another version.
- Chekhov's Gun: Powers describes an embarrassing accident during training where a pilot lost control of his U-2 and ended up crashing into deep mud at a Japanese glider strip, which resulted in unwanted publicity as bystanders began photographing the plane before being cleared away by military police. The U-2 in question was the same one Powers would be shot down in.
- Culture Clash: Powers finds himself unprepared for a number of differences between the American and Soviet legal systems, which Grinev has to explain to him.
- Cyanide Pill: Powers accepts one of these in case he is captured, but it's confiscated by the Soviets. This receives a lot of focus at his trial, as the Soviet prosecutors believe the CIA had ordered their pilots to kill themselves if captured, rather than it being optional.
- Didn't Think This Through: The CIA didn't brief their pilots on what to do if they were shot down as they believed such a thing was impossible. When Powers is shot down, their attempt at explaining the situation was to claim his oxygen equipment malfunctioned and the plane's autopilot caused it to stray into Soviet airspace. This cover story was never discussed with the pilots.
- Everyone Has Standards: Rudenko, the prosecutor, seems genuinely disgusted that Powers expected to be tortured by his captors.
- Exact Words: Powers states at his trial that he is very sorry to have run the mission on which he was shot down, in order to make it appear that he wasn't willing to do so and was tricked into it. In truth, he is sorry, but only because he got caught.
- Fatal Flaw: For Powers, his love of flying comes first, no matter the risks. This leads him to work for the CIA as he's promised he will be able to fly higher than anyone has before, and even after the U-2 incident he refused to stay on the ground, which ultimately led to his death in a helicopter crash.
- Freudian Excuse: Invoked rather cynically by Grinev to defend Powers at his trial, citing his family's poverty, "mass unemployment in the United States" and Powers allegedly receiving capitalist indoctrination growing up as reasons why he accepted his contract with the CIA.
- Gray-and-Grey Morality: Both the United States and the Soviets engage in their share of dubious actions, with Powers caught in the middle.
- Ham-to-Ham Combat: During the closing phase of Powers' trial, he notes that both Rudenko, the prosecutor, and Grinev, his defense attorney, seem to be trying to outdo each other.
- Insistent Terminology: Powers and his fellow pilots are instructed to call the CIA "the agency."
- Just Following Orders: Powers' defense strategy is to claim he knew very little of what he was doing and was simply operating the plane's equipment according to his instructions without understanding what it was used for.
- Kangaroo Court: Downplayed. Powers' trial isn't blatantly unfair as he's allowed to defend himself and introduce evidence favorable to him, but is clearly being exploited for propaganda value and he suspects the prosecutor and defense attorney are working in tandem, with Grinev, the defense attorney, being infamous for losing important state cases.
- Naïve Newcomer: Powers comes off as a fairly average guy who loves to fly and is eager to serve his country. This leads him to join the CIA and he soon finds himself in over his head.
- Oh, Crap!: Powers recalls yelling "My God, I've had it now!" when his U-2 is hit.
- Only Sane Man: Powers certainly feels this way, as he's thrown into the middle of an international conflict he doesn't fully understand.
- Patriotic Fervor: Given the tensions of the Cold War, which are escalated by the U-2 incident, there's plenty of this on both sides. Powers describes his trial as "The USSR v. The United States of America and, incidentally, Francis Gary Powers", with both the prosecutor and defense attorney denouncing the United States in general in their closing arguments.
- Person as Verb: In his summation, Rudenko blasts both Powers himself and those who trained him and his fellow "Powerses" to blindly obey any order they were given and ask questions later, comparing him to those who dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Rudenko is described in these terms, being described in a news article as a loyal enforcer of whatever decision is made by his superiors, whether by Stalin or Khrushchev.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Powers' trial gives us a pair of back-to-back ones. First Rudenko, the prosecutor, gives a hammy summation blasting both Powers and the United States in general, then Grinev, the defense attorney, gives a similar speech and claims the CIA sent Powers to die.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: This exchange at Powers' trial, which he notes drew laughter from the spectators:
Rudenko: Did you have permission to fly over the Soviet Union?
Powers: If such permission had been given, it would have concerned higher authority and I would not have known anything about it.
Rudenko: If such permission had been given you would obviously not be in the prisoners' dock today.
Powers: That is why I assume we had no such permission.
- Unwanted Assistance: Powers views his defense attorney, Mikhail Grinev, as this, stating that he specialized in losing important cases, with a number of his previous clients being convicted and executed. During the trial he does introduce some evidence helpful to Powers, but fails to challenge most of the prosecution's claims, and makes it clear in his closing summation that his sympathy is with the prosecution and he's only defending Powers because he has to, then delivers a propaganda attack on the United States, giving the false impression that Powers consented to this. However, a lawyer for the Powers family
did not share this view, stating that Grinev did an admirable job and Powers couldn't have had a better lawyer. - Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Powers finds taking a lie detector test for the CIA the most unpleasant experience he's been through, and lies about doing so when captured because he fears the Soviets would also make him take one.
- Xanatos Gambit: When Khrushchev reveals that Powers is alive and in custody, Eisenhower is put in the unenviable position of having to either admit that he ordered the overflights, or to deny doing so which would make it look like he wasn't in control and the CIA was acting outside his authority. He chooses the former.
