The visiting Russian artists and scientists, and their American friends, wanted to take their Manhattan "peace" show on road tour. They had a cross-country junket all worked out, and a fine crowd-teasing routine: a little lulling piano music by their star performer, Soviet Composer Dmitri Shostakovich, accompanied by stirring oratory to prove that it was the U.S. and not Russia, which was the real threat to peace.
Last week the State Department peremptorily called a halt. It ruled that the visas of 17 Iron Curtainers were no longer valid, ordered the men to leave the country as soon as possible. Before they...
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