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~~ tee"conducted lengthy hearings| | T HE ALTITUDE. on the U-2 incident... . We examined witnesses from the By ‘Robert J. Donovan partment of Sta e Cen- a ashingtos ‘tral Intelligence Agency and i . Chie © 7 the Department of Defense. We "Co respondent are interested now in complet- WASHINGTON. . ang these hearings by receiving For the United States govern- ment, for the Kremlin and for Francis Gary Powers, an ale! together fascinating dilemma has erisen out of the U-2 affair, and it all revolves about a nice round figure—68,000 feet. -' such information as may now be available from Mr. Powers.” ‘ To the press, Sen. Sparkmrn said he had no present plans : for calling Mr. Powers. “Want the Fall Story” “My present thinking is it will _jnot be necessary to interrogate Mr. Powers. But this is not to .#be taken as absolutely final. We ] will want the full story, re- gardless of what agency may have possession of the informa- tion. I don't believe that there - : is any question but that the z ; CIA will make available a full : report, either through the State Department or in separate briefings.” ; As for pilot Powers, he is ap- parently closeted with his wife and family, apparently some- where along the eastern shore ae . of Maryland, Virginia or Dela- : ware, apparently in good health, apparently resting up for a couple of days befcre going into the exhaustive “‘de-briefing” °, session now being prepared by various government agencies. “Apparently’—because the gov- ‘ ernment was not saying. The secrecy that surrounded the latest phase of the Powers case was almost as airtight as the secrecy that surrounded his: at ge flight Quer_Russia : two years ago. 3 May 7, 1060, was the altitude at which Russian rockets crip- pled Mr. Powers’ U-2 recon- This announcement spread dismay in Washington. The manned bomber was then—~as it hind America's policy of deter- ring the Soviet Union from war. mind. The Powers -plane, they: ‘said, had “flamed out” at 68,-: : 000 feet and was not struck by 2, , rockets until it had descended to a much lower altitude, per-, e i 44 haps 20,000 to 40,000 feet. - oe i Then Mr. Powers “went on 4 trial oscow. He, testified, " ambiguously, that he had been struck by “something” at 68,000 feet. On the one hand this lent Uttle comfort to those who! ‘were peddling the “flame-out”! theory, but on the other hand the testimony left it in doubt whether a rocke had hit the plane. _ | Thus, at least until Central __. ‘Intelligence Agency officials be- gan questioning Mr. Powers in secrecy after his arrival from Russia early Sunday morning, no one’ in the United States from the President down knew ly happene sky over Russia on May 1, 1960. is now—a critical weapon be-|. cannot fly at anything like|’ 2 68,000 feet, however, the rocket| Inttigping Questions _~ | This gives rise to the fo the ‘most| intriguing questions. Buppose the U-2 was hit -at: jan altitude lower than 68,000: feet. After having gone to great lengths to ‘demonstrate that their rockets were effective up to that height, why should the| Russians have released Mr.: Powers to put the record, straight? If he came home and said that he was hit at a lower alti- tude, his story would reassure the world on the deterrent U. 8. Strategy at Stake ‘ _| Ing sense American deterrent _ {strategy is at stake here. That .jis why Russian officials have. ; been eager to prove that the/ i]U-2 was knocked down at'68,000/ i {feet and American officials have i|been anxious to have it believed! had been hit at lower altitude: why did he testify that he had! been hit at 68,000? Was he. perhaps tortured. into making this statement? But if that were “t true it would be all the more j/reason for the Russians ta have. kept him in Jal It defies understanding that the Russians . should have turned an American loose (1) to reveal that Soviet rockets could ‘not hit him at 68,000 feet and ,(2) to tell mankind that he had been tortured into testifying :otherwise. Unless, of course, ‘there was a deal of some kind. Unless, for example, the United ‘States in return for getting Mr. Powers back agreed that he would not publicly retract his testimonoy that he was hit by “something” at 68,000 feet. H Another Shading There is another shading to. the general dilemma too. The! United States now js trying to! ease Soviet-American tensions. The Administration, as evi- denced by Alexei. Adzhubei’s visit to President Kennedy and White House’ press secretary Pierre Salinger’s forthcoming trip to Russia, is endeavoring ‘to improve communication be-; tween the White House and the Kremlin. It is not easy to see how this goal would be fur- thered by using Mr. Powers to prove—te-the world-that—Mr. Khrushchev is a liar since it Lone «first ames as hit at 68,000 feet. On the other hand, suppose . Powers is now telling CIA ‘bficials on the eastern shore of Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, or ‘wherever his hideaway is, that ‘Mr. Khrushchev was not lying. ‘Suppose he confirms that a rocket downed the plane at 68,- 000 feet. That would pose for the United States a heavy di- lemma about the effectiveness of the bombers it is flying and others it is in the process of pro- curing — indeed about its whole deterrent strategy. . Powers’ Testimony Mr. Powers’ testimony in Mos- jcow on the downing of his plane is interesting in the light of the dilemmas that have been raised. On Aug. 17, 1860, Roman A. Rudenko, the state prosecutor, was intorrogating him, and the Jexchange was as follows: ° Q.: “At what altitude was your plane when it was struck by the rocket?” A.: “It was at the maximum! - altitude—at about 68,000 feet.” Q.: “Under what circum- stances did this take place?” A.:; “I just finished making a turn. I was flying one minute Straight after the turn when I saw—that is, I felt a sort of hollow -sound explosion. It seemed to be behind me. I could eee An organe flash or an orange- colored light behind me.” ’ Picture fs Blurred “The next day Mr. Rudenko pressed the matter again, but this time Mr. Powers blurred the picture. Thus: Q: “It was at that altitude of 68,000 feet that you were flying over the area of Sverd- Novsk?” - AS “Yes, ” Q: “It was at that altitude that you were struck down by 8 Soviet rocket?” | A: “It was at that altitude that I was etruck down by something.” O: “You say you were struck down by something?” - ' A: “Why, I had no idea what it was. I didn't see it.” . Q: “At that altitude?” ae A: “Wes.” / Brought Plane Down Thus on the first day Mr. Powers unequivocally answered ® question about his being shot jadown-by-a-rocket, but twenty __ four hours later he had } doubts and could say only #- he had been hit by somesne Still, it was at. 68,000 1§n, or it brought his plane é Again, suppose ae sO a.