Presidents have traditionally tried to avoid getting caught lying. It's bad for their personal reputations and for the brand of the American presidency. Rather than speak falsehood on any given subject, they would speak nothing at all. “No comment" didn't make reporters happy, but neither did it get presidents in trouble.
Presidents have lied since the founding of the republic, often in furtherance of questionable ends. From Polk’s assertion that Mexico had attacked U.S. troops across the border which got us into the Mexican-American War and McKinley’s repeating that Spain was responsible for the sinking of the Maine, through Bush’s selective use of questionable intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to Obama’s deceptions about the U.S. response to the Islamic State, foreign relations of the U.S. have been driven by misrepresentations and lies about our real and fancied enemies.
Francis Gary Power’s flight was unnecessary. U.S. Intelligence had already established that the Missile Gap was non-existent. There was no need for any further proof. The flight, so close to the summit, was reckless, at best. The Soviet Union knew about the U-2 flights but had been unable to do anything about them to that point.
The idea that an Eisenhower-Khrushchev summit would have permanently eased Cold War tensions is unlikely. After the 1961 Vienna Summit, Khrushchev felt that he could push Kennedy around with no consequences. This ultimately led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I recall a great uncle of mine, a rock-ribbed Republican, telling me in the late 60's that he lost faith in the US government when "Ike lied about the U-2".
We've gone from this to cataloging presidential lies on a weekly basis, so far have we lowered the bar for presidential misconduct.
Presidents have lied since the founding of the republic, often in furtherance of questionable ends. From Polk’s assertion that Mexico had attacked U.S. troops across the border which got us into the Mexican-American War and McKinley’s repeating that Spain was responsible for the sinking of the Maine, through Bush’s selective use of questionable intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to Obama’s deceptions about the U.S. response to the Islamic State, foreign relations of the U.S. have been driven by misrepresentations and lies about our real and fancied enemies.
Francis Gary Power’s flight was unnecessary. U.S. Intelligence had already established that the Missile Gap was non-existent. There was no need for any further proof. The flight, so close to the summit, was reckless, at best. The Soviet Union knew about the U-2 flights but had been unable to do anything about them to that point.
The idea that an Eisenhower-Khrushchev summit would have permanently eased Cold War tensions is unlikely. After the 1961 Vienna Summit, Khrushchev felt that he could push Kennedy around with no consequences. This ultimately led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I recall a great uncle of mine, a rock-ribbed Republican, telling me in the late 60's that he lost faith in the US government when "Ike lied about the U-2".