THE NATION: Cold-War Candor

"It is certainly no secret," said the State Department last week, "that, given the state of the world today, intelligence collection activities are practiced by all countries . . . The necessity for such activities as measures for legitimate national defense is enhanced by the excessive secrecy practiced by the Soviet Union in contrast to the free world."

With historic frankness, the statement went on to admit that "endeavoring to obtain information now concealed behind the Iron Curtain," an unarmed U.S. plane had flown over Soviet territory. Thus the U.S. told the world...

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