Abel for Powers

It was a cold, cloudy morning in Berlin. Just before 8 o'clock, five blue-grey German-made sedans pulled up at the western end of Glienicker Bruecke. the steel-trussed bridge that spans the sleepy Havel River between the U.S. zone and Communist territory. A group of 20 American military men and civilians got out and waited. Five minutes later, other cars approached the bridge from the Communist side. Their occupants emerged and stood talking. Finally, two men detached themselves from the opposing groups and walked across the white stripe, in the center of the bridge, that marks the boundary between West and East. Thus. last week, was effected the exchange of a pair of convicted cold war spies: American Francis Gary Powers, 32, the U-2 pilot who crashed in Russia in 1960 and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, and Russia's Colonel Rudolf Abel. 59, who had served almost five years of a 30-year sentence for his espionage activities in New York.

The Powers case was a milestone in the cold war. Nikita Khrushchev seized upon the downing of the U-2 pilot to torpedo a

Paris summit meeting and launch a series of crises that continued beyond the Administration of Dwight Eisenhower through the first year of John Kennedy's New Frontier. Only in recent weeks had there seemed to be signs of thaw--and the Powers-Abel exchange was certainly the most dramatic evidence to date of that thaw. There was a further meaning to the exchange. Although the U.S. under Eisenhower had admitted the purpose of Powers' flight over the Soviet Union, Russia had never so much as admitted that Abel existed. The trade of the two men last week was at least a tacit Soviet admission that Abel, like Powers, was a spy. In the exchange, the Communists also released Frederic L. Pryor, a 28-year-old American who was taking a graduate course in economics in West Berlin when he blundered into East Berlin last summer. He was arrested and had been held without charges ever since.

Negative Answer. The negotiations that led to the Powers-Abel transfer began months ago--and the key figure was New York Lawyer James B. Donovan, a man with considerable experience in espionage cases. Donovan, 45, served in World War II as a Navy commander, became legal aide to Major General William ("Wild Bill") Donovan (no kin) in the Office of Strategic Services. After the war, he worked as a top assistant to Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson in prosecuting Nazi war criminals at Nuernberg. When Soviet Spymaster Abel was caught, Donovan was his court-appointed attorney. In arguing against the death penalty for Abel, Donovan made a prophetic plea: "It is possible that in the foreseeable future, an American of equivalent rank will be captured by the Soviet Union or an ally. At such time, an exchange of prisoners could be considered to be in the best interest of the United States."

More than a year ago, Donovan got a letter from East Berlin, signed by someone purporting to be Abel's wife. It inquired about the chances for pardon or commutation of Abel's sentence. Donovan promptly took it to the Justice Department. The official answer was negative: there was no legal reason for letting Abel off early. But unofficially, Donovan was encouraged to look into the prospects of an Abel-Powers exchange. He continued his correspondence with East Berlin. By last month, matters had progressed to the point where Donovan, with the full knowledge and approval of the Kennedy Administration, traveled to East Berlin to negotiate with parties still unidentified.

Desire for Improvement. Donovan's mission was successful. He sent word to Washington that the Communists were agreeable to an exchange of spies. Last week, under a commutation order signed by President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Russia's Abel was secretly taken from the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta in preparation for his flight to Berlin.

Within five minutes of the exchange last weekend, word was flashed to the White House, where President Kennedy had slipped away from a dinner-dance to await the news. When it came, at 2:52 a.m. (E.S.T.), Press Secretary Pierre Salinger had White House correspondents phoned at their homes, routed from bed and summoned to the White House. In Moscow, the announcement of Powers' release was made later--and was explained as being motivated by the Kremlin's desire "for an improvement in relations between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A." There was not a word about Spy Abel, who is still an unperson in the U.S.S.R.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.