The Iron Petticoat

A Soviet military jet, unauthorized flying over West German airspace, is forced to land accompanied by US Air Force Captain Chuck Lockwood. The US Air Force discovers that the person flying the jet is officious Captain Vinka Kovalenko who wants to defect, not because she denounces Communism, which she still strongly endorses, but because of what she sees as the patriarchy that exists within her professional life, an unqualified male who was promoted within her direct sphere. Regardless, the US Air Force's Colonel Newton Tarbell wants to use Vinka, regarded as a heroine by the Soviet populace, as propaganda in showing her embracing capitalist ideals, this plan endorsed by the US State Department. Who Tarbell assigns for this job is a reluctant Chuck himself, in the process Tarbell rescinding what was his scheduled furlough to London, where Chuck was going to meet up with his wealthy, aristocratic British fiancee, Lady Constance Warburton-Watts. Wanting still to meet up with Lady Warburton-Watts, Chuck is able to convince Tarbell to let them go to London on the premise that it was Vinka's idea instead of the original plan to head stateside. In having Chuck as her companion, Vinka, unaware of the propaganda campaign to "convert her", comes up with the idea of bringing Chuck back to Moscow to parade him as an example of a liberated western male who also embraces Communism. And the Soviets discover that Vinka is in London, military officials at the USSR Trade Mission based in London who believe in she being accompanied by Chuck that she defected for love namely of Chuck. As such, they enlist the aid of one of Vinka's past unsuccessful suitors, mild-mannered engineer Ivan Kropotkin, to woo her back to the Soviet Union. If that tactic fails, they are not averse to a more heavy handed approach. What changes in this entire situation is Vinka, in the process, embracing her feminine side for the first time, and having love in her sights in the form of Chuck.