In the last days of August, 1956, a group of six Americans, consisting of five physicians (Dr. Herman Hilleboe of Albany, commissioner of health of the state of New York; Dr. Ancel Keys of Minneapolis, professor of physiology, University of Minnesota; Dr. Howard Rusk of New York City, professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, New York University; Dr. James Watt of Bethesda, Md., executive director of the National Heart Institute, U. S. Public Health Service; and myself) and a sociologist (Dr. Mark Field of Boston), who also acted as interpreter, flew to Moscow from Helsinki for a brief (10-day) medical visit at the invitation of the Soviet Minister of Health, Dr. Maria Kovrigina. The visit of this small mission had been privately arranged during the previous few months with the approval of the State Department of the U. S. A. The transportation of the members of the group was individually