Klappentext

A thrilling historical narrative of the top-secret Cold War-era spy plane operation that transformed the CIA and brought the U. S. and the Soviet Union to the brink of disaster

In A Brotherhood of Spies, award-winning journalist Monte Reel reveals how the U-2 spy program upended the Cold War and carved a new mission for the CIA. A secret fraternity, made up of Edwin Land, best known as the inventor of instant photography and the head of Polaroid Corporation; Kelly Johnson, a hard-charging taskmaster from Lockheed; Richard Bissell, the secretive and ambitious spymaster; and ace Air Force flyer Gary Powers, set out to replace fallible human spies with an undetectable eye in the sky.
When an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union just weeks before a peace summit between the two nations in 1960, the CIA concocted a cover story for President Eisenhower to deliver. But against all odds, the pilot emerged from the wreckage and was seized by the KGB. He confessed to espionage charges, revealing to the world that Eisenhower had just lied to the American people--and to the Soviet Premier thus closing the door on a rare opening in Cold War relations. The clandestine successes and all-too-public failures of this program make up Monte Reel's brilliantly reported account--a true-life thriller with the highest stakes and tragic repercussions.