Barbara I can’t find words to express what I feel for you. You mean everything to me and I love you very much. Please take care of yourself Darling and don’t worry about me. You have your life and future to think of.
Well Darling I will stop for now. Remember that I love you very much and miss you more than I can say.
Not until I began listening to the tapes did I realize how much care the Soviets took to censor his letters while he was at Lubyanka. They often would make him rewrite a letter, with words changed and paragraphs moved.
In time, CIA officials wondered why he had not tried to communicate by inserting coded messages into his letters, which the government men pressed him on after his repatriation:
US Interrogator: Did you at any time, in any of your letters, attempt to make use of the Air Force communications system?
Powers: At first it was impossible—before the trial when I really wanted to do this it was impossible because it takes a little preparation work to do this and at first I had no paper and pencil. They gave me some a little later, but they kept track of the number of sheets of paper they gave me and counted them and there was—I could tell that someone was in my cell occasionally when I was out—apparently nosing around through things—and some of the letters I even had to write in the presence of someone. They weren’t particularly watching what I was writing, but they were sitting around somewhere in the room so it was impossible at that time. Later on I attempted to write twice. That was after the trial. After I’d been transferred to another prison and—well—my cellmate I think was all right, but I thought I couldn’t trust him. One day he was asleep and I started doing this and he woke up and I immediately stuck the stuff in my pocket. Another time he had gone to a dentist or something—I don’t remember what—and I started to do this, but he came back too soon and other than that we were constantly together all the time and it was impossible to do it without someone knowing you were doing something.
US Interrogator: In other words, this required certain deliberate arrangements of your writing in such a manner that you just couldn’t sit down—?
Powers: Well, I don’t know whether it would require all people to do this, but for me. I had to sit down and figure out this particular code and so forth on paper where I could watch it and continuously refer to it while I was writing and count up letters and words, etc. If there was some little simple arrangement, but if it is simple, then it might be caught too easily.
US Interrogator: In other words you found that it was just a little too complicated, the system itself was a little too complicated to apply under the condition that you were living in?
Powers: Yes. Now I thought that what I had heard about work camps—I thought that if I was transferred to one of those I would have ample opportunity to do this whenever I needed to say anything.
US Interrogator: Were you asked—?
Powers: Pardon?
US Interrogator: Were you asked something like this: “Are you trying to communicate in any code?” Or were you told—don’t try any codes?
Powers: No, they didn’t ask, was I trying to communicate, but they had asked me earlier if I knew any—any codes and I knew no codes. I told them, yes, I knew Morse code and that we used a little bit, but I probably couldn’t use it. International Morse Code. Well, they didn’t ask me code. They asked me cryptographic. Did I know any crypto—something, and I said, what is that, code? And he said, yes; and I said, I know only the Morse code and I never did know that too well so even though I’m sure they checked those letters very closely they seemed to believe that I didn’t have any way to communicate.27
Unaware that officials back in Washington had worked with Barbara to evaluate evidence of brainwashing, the pilot dealt with the issue in his journaclass="underline"
Most all the people I came into contact with were kind and considerate. I was forced to do nothing. They gave me books to read to occupy my time and they were not political books. They showed no desire what-so-ever to convert me to their beliefs…. All of the publicity about brain washing is pure nonsense, and I personally think a figment of someone’s imagination who cannot believe that it is normal for someone to have a belief that is different from his own.28
Seven years after his release, once he was able to look back on the period, Dad displayed a more nuanced view on his tapes:
I didn’t have to read anything. Didn’t have to listen. If I had wanted to ask a question, they would have been more than happy. But they didn’t press things on me. They didn’t sit me down and lecture me about the Soviet Union or customs or how bad I was and how good they were. But I could see where when a person has only one source of information… 99 percent of any news I got was [from a] Russian source. Best source I had was the British Daily Worker…. These things, all major events there, slanted to the communist viewpoint…. Could see how you could start questioning things that you didn’t question before. After a year or so of reading nothing but one side you begin to lose track of the other side. I can see how a person if he was in prison, given nothing but communist literature for ten years, that he would probably be a communist when he got out. Unless he had something to compare it to.29
Without access to Western news sources, the letters he regularly received from his family helped cut through the veil of propaganda.
After the KGB completed its interrogation and the date of his trial was set, Frank composed his third letter to his wife:
19 July 1960
My Dearest Barbara,
Apparently you wrote your last letter before you received mine. I suppose you have received it by this time. The only reason that my parents received a letter before you did is because I received theirs before I received yours and I answered them.
While speaking of letters, there is no need for you to send them other than by regular air mail, they will reach me just as fast.
Since I last wrote you I have received one letter from home and one from my sister Joan. I have answered both of them and also, as my father requested, sent him a cable gram telling him he could come to visit me when it was convenient to him. He said his bag was already packed and apparently he plans to come soon.
The only reason I requested you to wait until the trial before visiting me was because I didn’t know how long it would be. I know that you would be very lonely here if you had to wait a long time. More lonely than you would be there with your Mother. I was told that you would be allowed to see me after the trial but I don’t know how often.
The trial date has been set for the seventeenth of August. I sure didn’t expect a trial for my birthday. Now you can make plans for your trip. I don’t want you to have to stay here in Moscow alone for a long period of time. You know how it is to be alone in a strange city.
You know that I would like to see you more than I can tell. You are always in my thoughts and it is impossible to tell you how much I miss you.
Please tell all the people that have offered their help to me that I appreciate it very much. If I knew of any way they could be of assistance I would let you know, but I know of no way. If they know of any way and want to help me I could never thank them enough for I am charged with a very serious charge, one of the few that carry the death penalty.
I have a Russian defense counsel appointed to defend me. I have talked to him several times and feel sure he will do his best and that is all I can ask of anyone.