# Did any American agent commit suicide during the cold war to avoid capture by the Soviet bloc? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 24, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-agent-commit-suicide-during-the-cold-war-to-avoid-capture-by-the-soviet-bloc/792059 "2017-07-24T22:21:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-agent-commit-suicide-during-the-cold-war-to-avoid-capture-by-the-soviet-bloc/792059/1 "2017-07-24T22:21:09Z")
So [Francis Powers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident) and the other U2 pilots were famously given cyanide needles to commit suicide in the event of capture (and in fact he faced reprobation for not using his). Were they the only US intelligence agents\* who were issued with similar devices, or given similar orders during the cold war? Did any of them use them? Was the practice of issuing suicide devices ever formally banned by the powers that be in the US? - - technically he was an airforce pilot working for the CIA, but I would not include solders fighting to the last man in this (as I am sure happened at some point in Veitnam or Korea). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-agent-commit-suicide-during-the-cold-war-to-avoid-capture-by-the-soviet-bloc/792059/2 "2017-07-24T23:38:24Z")
> [@](#): > > …(and in fact he faced reprobation for not using his). Do you have a cite for this? According to his own account, he was told that it was to spare him from torture, not to protect any secrets, and that if he was captured he shouldn’t even worry about secrets, because the Russians would get the information one way or another anyway. Now, granted, he would have incentive to say that even if it weren’t true, but he at least knows better than anyone else what exactly he was told about it. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-agent-commit-suicide-during-the-cold-war-to-avoid-capture-by-the-soviet-bloc/792059/3 "2017-07-25T00:59:41Z")
From his son years later but it was definitely something he was criticized for: > [@](#): > > “When my father returns home he is shocked to discover that editorials had been written while he was in prison. These editorials in the American and British press basically said he had defected,” says Gary Powers Junior. > “He had landed the plane intact, he had spilled his guts and told the Soviets everything he knew, or that he hadn’t followed orders and committed suicide - all of which were part truths, mis-truths, some outright lies and innuendoes.” > Why had Powers not committed suicide? Why had he not destroyed the aircraft before ejecting? Why had he followed the instructions of his Russian lawyers so obediently? > The discussion around these questions in the US media painted Powers in a deeply unflattering light. > **[Gary Powers: The U-2 spy pilot the US did not love](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35064221)** > > Gary Powers, the US pilot in the Cold War prisoner exchange depicted in Bridge of Spies, returned home to a chorus of criticism - but was this fair? I didn’t realize they were only given the pin to avoid torture, and were not ordered to use it. That seems a shirking moral responsibility by the higher ups to me. As obviously by the time they were being tortured, the wouldn’t have access to the pin. So they clearly expected them to use it before they were captured. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-agent-commit-suicide-during-the-cold-war-to-avoid-capture-by-the-soviet-bloc/792059/4 "2017-07-25T02:01:20Z")
Most people up to then considered that whilst suicide may be morally preferable to pain or dishonour, or to honourably deny one’s enemies a triumph, _vide_ Göring, it was generally a mortal sin — therefore those journalistic imbeciles criticizing the brave and unfortunate Captain Powers were symptomatic of that age’s slide into moral decadence. Anyway apart from the fact the high ground could not be claimed in this case, since the Americans _were_ spying with the U2s ( plus they lied disgustingly after ); the soviets using physical torture for interrogation on non-citizens or non-Warsaw Pact citizens was vanishingly rare. And that includes those allied soldiers sent to the Gulag. Call it professional courtesy. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-agent-commit-suicide-during-the-cold-war-to-avoid-capture-by-the-soviet-bloc/792059/5 "2017-07-25T03:31:44Z")
Ah, OK, I don’t doubt that there were some in the press, or in the general public, who believed that he ought to have committed suicide. But that’s not the same as the actual military and intelligence organizations expecting him to have done so, which (if you believe his account) didn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-agent-commit-suicide-during-the-cold-war-to-avoid-capture-by-the-soviet-bloc/792059/6 "2017-07-25T07:12:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Ah, OK, I don’t doubt that there were some in the press, or in the general public, who believed that he ought to have committed suicide. But that’s not the same as the actual military and intelligence organizations expecting him to have done so, which (if you believe his account) didn’t happen. But I never claimed they had criticized him for not doing so. But that’s a complete side track to the OP. They clearly did issue the device, and expect it to be used to avoid capture and torture (though as you point out they didn’t order them to take their own lives and didn’t issue it to avoid information falling in enemy hands). The question was were the U2 pilots the only agents issued this device during the cold war? Did anyone actually use it? And when did they stop issuing them. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-agent-commit-suicide-during-the-cold-war-to-avoid-capture-by-the-soviet-bloc/792059/7 "2017-07-25T07:42:29Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > Anyway apart from the fact the high ground could not be claimed in this case, since the Americans _were_ spying with the U2s ( plus they lied disgustingly after ); the soviets using physical torture for interrogation on non-citizens or non-Warsaw Pact citizens was vanishingly rare. And that includes those allied soldiers sent to the Gulag. > Call it professional courtesy. True. Like Americans (then and now) were pretty good at not torturing _White_ captives. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-agent-commit-suicide-during-the-cold-war-to-avoid-capture-by-the-soviet-bloc/792059/8 "2017-07-25T12:31:08Z")
Little Brothers need firm hands. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-agent-commit-suicide-during-the-cold-war-to-avoid-capture-by-the-soviet-bloc/792059/9 "2017-07-25T20:13:30Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > True. Like Americans (then and now) were pretty good at not torturing _White_ captives. **Moderator Warning** **AK84** , I’m sure you know that political jabs are not permitted in General Questions. This is an official warning. Do not do this again. Colibri General Questions Moderator