Few Americans considered the gathering on Friday, October 4th , 1957, at the Soviet Union's Embassy in Washington, DC, to be anything out of the ordinary. It was the appropriate climax of a week-long set of international scientific meetings. It was also, in the cynical Cold War world of international intrigue between the United States and the Soviet Union, an opportunity to gather national security intelligence and engage in petty games of one-upmanship between the rivals. This one would prove far different. The one-upmanship continued, but it was far from petty. To a remarkable degree, th…
