After the Russians captured U-2 Pilot Francis G. Powers last May 1, both his wife and his parents asked the Soviet embassy in Washington for permission to go to Moscow to see him. With the baffling arbitrariness that so often characterizes Soviet officialdom, the Russians granted a visa only to Powers' father Oliver, who runs a shoe repair shop in Norton, Va. Powers' wife Barbara, 24, spent three anxious months importuning the U.S. State Department for help, pleading with Soviet embassy officials, even sending a personal appeal to Nikita Khrushchev.
Last week the Soviet...
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