The Malloys had taken them to the Algonquin for dinner to celebrate the move. Malloy had smiled as he pointed out that it was May Day. Sunday, the first of May, 1960.
It was 3 a.m. in the morning when Aarons was awakened by the telephone and he made his way, half-asleep, into the living room, trying to remember where the phone was. He never gave a name when he answered the phone, just the number and he heard Malloy’s voice say, “That’s not your number any more, fella.”
“Is something the matter?”
“Yeah, can I come across and see you?”
“When?”
“Right now. It’s important.”
“OK. I’ll wait for you.”
Malloy was wearing slacks, a thick heavy pullover and sneakers and he followed Aarons into the living room. Aarons had prepared a Thermos of coffee and as he poured Malloy said, “I’m sorry to do this but I had a call about an hour ago from Harry Truman. He’s back home in Independence but he’d been invited to some dinner at the White House last night by President Eisenhower, and he’d come up with Bess because it was something to do with the Veterans Administration.” He paused. “Anyway, half-way through the dinner Ike was called away and about an hour later a message comes for Truman to join him. Seems he was put in a car and driven to the Pentagon. He sat in on a briefing for Ike about an urgent problem. When the briefing was over Ike took him to one side and asked him his views on how the problem should be dealt with. He gave his opinion and when he was back at the White House he phoned me and asked me to get your views because Ike doesn’t agree with Truman’s suggestion.”
“What’s it all about?”
For a moment Malloy hesitated, then he said, “Can I ask that this not be passed on elsewhere?”
“OK.”
“We’ve got special planes, called U-2s that do high-level reconnaissance. Some of their reconnaissance flights go right across the Soviet Union, photographing what they see on the ground. They fly so high that we reckoned that the Soviet gunners can’t touch them. They’re not only illegal flights but they could cause great friction between the Soviets and us.” He paused. “The President was told at his Pentagon briefing that one of these planes had crashed somewhere in the Soviet Union. So far the Soviets haven’t said anything. Maybe they haven’t located it yet. But when they do they’re bound to make a big thing of it, especially with a summit coming up in a few weeks.” He shrugged. “So the problem is—what does Ike say when the balloon goes up?”
“What does he intend saying?”
“That we don’t have spy planes and that it was a weather plane strayed off its course.”
“What does Truman suggest?”
“Tell the truth and apologise. Confirm that no such missions will be flown in future.”
“That would be tough to do. But it’s the only way.”
“Why not Ike’s way?”
“Because nobody in the world will believe him. Sooner or later someone will give the game away. Ike is admired because he is honest. People believe him. If they find that he lied to the world—then he’s finished. The same feet of clay as all the others. And the United States is no better than Moscow and the rest of them.”
“So you agree with Truman. Bite the bullet and take your punishment but keep your reputation.”
“Exactly.”
Malloy stood up. “Thanks. I’ll pass it on to Truman and that will make him feel it’s worthwhile trying to persuade Ike away from trying to cover up.” He stood up. “I’d better get back, Andrei. Thanks for your help.” He smiled. “You must have impressed the little man from Missouri way back. See you.”
It wasn’t until the following Thursday that Khrushchev announced to the world that Russian gunners had shot down an American aircraft over Soviet territory. A not very inspired leak from the US Aeronautics and Space Administration said that a weather observation plane was missing over Turkey after the pilot reported having oxygen trouble. NASA hinted that the pilot might have strayed over the Russo–Turkish border.
The next day, Lincoln White, a State Department spokesman, said, “There was no—repeat N-O—deliberate intention to violate Soviet air-space, and never had been.” The following day to its horror the White House learned that they were exposed to the world as liars when Khrushchev announced to the Supreme Soviet that a Russian rocket had brought down the plane and its pilot had been captured “alive and kicking” and had made a full confession. A few days of desultory sparring went on before the State Department admitted that it had lied. Moscow said that the pilot would be tried.
Some relief was recorded in Washington when Khrushchev made no move to avoid the summit meeting in Paris at the Elysée Palace. And on May 16 the big four assembled, Eisenhower, Khrushchev, de Gaulle and Macmillan. Khrushchev demanded that he should open the summit and accused Eisenhower of “treachery” and “acting like a bandit.” And after delivering his diatribe he stalked out and drove to the Soviet Embassy, leaving the summit in total disarray. Two days later, still in Paris, Khrushchev held a chaotic press conference attended by 3,000 members of the world’s media where he insulted the American president even more aggressively. And then announced that in the light of this offence against the Soviet Union he would now solve the Berlin problem by signing a separate treaty with Communist East Germany. Just one presidential lie had made possible the birth of the German Democratic Republic. The Cold War was closing in again, and it was election year.
CHAPTER 44
Like a good many others Andrei Aarons was an admirer of Adlai Stevenson and hoped that he would get the Democratic nomination. It seemed odd that the Republican front runner,
