SOVIET UNION: Who Is Dean Reed?

And why was the Kremlin making such a fuss about him ?

Even the most knowledgeable American pop-music fan would be hard pressed to identify Dean Reed. But in the Soviet Union, the Denver-born country-and-western singer is more popular than Frank Sinatra. His frequent concert tours of Communist countries draw S.R.O. crowds; his songs, which frequently blend Marxist-inspired lyrics with twanging strains of the Nashville sound (one big hit: War Goes On), sell in the millions. Last week the 40-year-old singer gained a new notoriety in his homeland; he turned up as...