On this day in 1962, American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers was released by the Soviets. He was swapped for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who had been captured five years earlier in the US.

Safe Swapping. Both men were brought to separate sides of the Glienicker Bridge, which connects East and West Berlin. The spies waited on opposite ends of the bridge while negotiators talked in the middle of the bridge A white line divided East and West.

The Go Ahead. Negotiations completed, Powers and Abel were waved forward. They crossed the border, each back to his own side, at precisely the same moment ~ 8:52 AM Berlin time.

Also Released... Just before Powers' and Abel's switch, Frederic Pryor ~ an American student who had been held by East German authorities ~ was released to American authorities at another border checkpoint.

Some History Please. In 1957, Reino Hayhanen, a lieutenant colonel in the KGB, walked into the American embassy in Paris and announced his plan to defect to the West. Hayhanen had been found wanting as a spy during his five years in the US. He was being recalled by the USSR, and feared the consequences. He received asylum. In exchange, he promised to help CIA agents expose a Soviet spy network in the United States. The CIA turned Hayhanen over to the FBI to investigate the claims.

Side By Spy By Side. During the Cold War, Soviet spies worked together in the US under a blanket of secrecy. They did not even reveal their names and addresses to each other. Because of this policy, Hayhanen was unable to produce much useful information. He did remember one incident in which he was taken to a storage room in Brooklyn. When the FBI tracked down the storage room, they found Emil R. Goldfus, an artist and photographer.

Okay, So Who Was Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel? Goldfus was actually Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, a Soviet spy fluent in at least five languages and an expert at the technical requirements of espionage.

High Time He Went. When Abel heard about Hayhanen's defection, he fled to Florida and remained underground for months. When he eventually returned to New York, he was arrested.

Straight Out of a Spy Novel. In his studio, FBI investigators found a hollow pencil used for concealing messages, a shaving brush containing microfilm, a code book, and radio transmitting equipment. Abel was found guilty of espionage and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment.

And Who Was Francis Gary Powers? Three years earlier, in 1960, CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers took off from Peshawar, Pakistan, at the controls of a high-altitude reconnaissance plane ~ the Lockheed U-2. Powers was to fly over Soviet territory to Bodö military airfield in Norway, collecting intelligence information en route. Halfway through his journey, he was shot down over Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains. He bailed out at 15,000 feet, survived the parachute jump, and was promptly arrested by Soviet authorities.

Confession. Not Good for the Soul. On May 5, Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev revealed that Powers was alive and well and had confessed to being on an intelligence mission for the CIA. The US admitted that the U-2 had probably flown over Soviet territory but denied that it had authorized the mission.

Talking It Over. Later that month, leaders from the United States, the USSR, Britain, and France met to discuss tensions in the two Germanys and to negotiate new disarmament treaties. The summit promptly collapsed after President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to apologize to Khruschev for the U-2 incident. Khruschev then canceled an invitation for Eisenhower to visit the USSR.

More Imprisonment. That August, Powers pleaded guilty to espionage charges and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

Back to Abel. At the end of his 1957 trial, Rudolf Abel escaped the death penalty when his lawyer convinced the judge that Abel might be useful in the future. This proved to be the case.

On this day in 1962... Abel was exchanged for Powers in Berlin.