PROJECT AQUATONE WAS PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

These quotes from the CIA's History of Project AQUATONE and Richard Bissell, a principal of the U2 program, show that the overflight program: utilized B-57 Canberra Bombers, the aircraft were rigged to explode (Wise) and was in reality a psychological warfare campaign to show the Soviets they could not protect their country from nuclear annihilation by the American Ruling Class.

31 August 2018 
Addition

It is my belief that the Soviets always made their protests privately because they did not want to admit to their citizens that the United States could overfly them with impunity and that the government was powerless to do anything about it. This tactic suited us very well, as we did not want public exposure to produce an ultimatum for the Soviets that the world press would convert into a cause for war. What actually actually happened was that the two governments, even in their deep hostility, found it convenient to collaborate and keep the flights secret. (Bissell 113)

As soon as we had a few successful overflights, however, it did occur to me that, if you could demonstrate to an enemy country that you could overfly them with impunity and it couldn't do a goddamn thing to prevent you, that in itself would be a good deterrent. I believe this strongly, and it's a point that has never been made about the history of the U-2. The U-2 was a deterrent because it showed that the United States possessed a significant technological capability that the Soviets could not match. That was a great accomplishment. (Bissell 140)

........

Allen’s approach was that we were unlikely to lose one. If we did lose one, the pilot would not survive…. We were told—and it was part of our understanding of the situation—that it was almost certain that the plane would disintegrate and that we could take it as a certainty that no pilot would survive ... and that although they would know where the plane came from, it would be difficult to prove it in any convincing way. (Pedlow, and Welzenbach 97-98)

The photos from July overnights were generally good, despite occasional problems caused by cloud cover. The huge amount of film taken by these missions provided more information about the Soviet Union's ability to track and intercept U-2s. Photo interpreters examining the films eventually discovered the tiny images of MiG-l5s and MiG-17s beneath the U-2s in various pursuit and attack attitudes: climbing, flipping over, and falling toward Earth. It was even possible to determine their approximate altitudes. These photographs showed that the Soviet air defense system was able w track U-2s well enough to attempt interception, but they also provided proof that the fighter aircraft available to the Soviet Union in 1956 could not bring down a U-2 at operational altitude. (Pedlow, and Welzenbach 11)

The 4 and 5 July overflights brought a strong protest from the Soviet Union on 10 July in the form of a note handed to the US Embassy in Moscow. The note said that the overflights had been made by a "twin-engine medium bomber of the United States Air Force" and gave details of the routes flown by the first two missions. The note did not mention Moscow or Leningrad, however, because the Soviets had not been able to track these portions of the overflights. The Soviet note stated that the flights could only be evaluated as "intentional and conducted for the purposes of intelligence ... As soon as the note arrived at the White House on the evening of 10 July 1956, Colonel Goodpaster called Bissell and told him to stop all U-2 overflights until further notice. The next morning Goodpaster met with Bissell to review the U-2 situation. Bissell said three additional flights had taken place since the missions mentioned in the Soviet note but added that no more were planned. (Pedlow, and Welzenbach 35) 

SOURCES:

1. Bissell, Richard M et al. Reflections Of A Cold Warrior. Yale University Press, 1996, pp. 113, 140.

2. Pedlow, Gregory W., and Donald E. Welzenbach. "The Secret History Of The U-2 - And Area 51". Nsarchive.Gwu.Edu, 2018, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB434/. Accessed 31 Aug 2018. http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB434/

3. Wise, David. "FRANCIS GARY POWERS IS ALIVE AND LIVING IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA". The Los Angeles Times Magazine, 1968, pp. 11-13.