Tour de Force

Fifteen editors of Soviet student newspapers applied last year for permission to visit colleges in the United States during the summer. The State Department, however, asked them to re-apply in the fall when college newspapers were publishing regularly. Now that these Soviet editors have again sought permission to tour this country, the State Department should grant them entrance. It will thereby correct any impression abroad that it is building a Paper Curtain of refused visas around the United States.

Several groups of American students from the mid-west have visited the Soviet Union during the past two summers on tours hardly of the Thomas Cook variety. But despite the restrictions which the Soviets imposed on these trips, the U.S. students felt they had at least made contact, even if they could not erase distorted views of American life. These visitors reported that the Soviets denied any knowledge of an Iron Curtain, saying, "You are here, and Russian students cannot get into the United States."

Indeed, TASS, the Soviet news agency, has capitalized on the State Department's refusal to grant the visas, and the Communist-controlled International Union of Students has used the story to woo students from neutral nations into its organization. But the State Department can easily refute this propaganda by granting entrance visas to the Soviet editors. The well-chaperoned visitors surely could discover no defense secrets from student newspapers and student councils, and the trip would increase U.S. prestige.

One objection to such a tour is that the editors applying range in age from 29 to 40--not exactly the counter-part of American undergraduates. Still, if the Soviet government wants to send older and more hardened Communists, the only result would be harmful press reactions. Another reason for refusal is the McCarran Act, which prohibits the entry of Communists into the U.S. But exceptions are possible, as in the case of Soviet delegates to the United Nations or to special meetings.

A final objection is that the editors would hardly be free agents when they returned home. They would be under pressure to claim first-hand evidence for Russia's anti-American policy. There is the chance, however, that the visitors would learn enough to question this policy. Thus even if they did return to play variations on an old theme, the result could be no worse than the distortions which now exist.