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This article explores the first American tour of the Paris Opera Ballet in September-October 1948, as part of a post-war dynamic of cultural diplomacy of France. This tour also had an important political dimension with the disputed presence of Serge Lifar, a ballet master convicted of having collaborated with the enemy, who returned to the Opera in 1947. This article explains the negotiations, the tour itself, and the American reception based on an examination of the press, diplomatic archives, and Paris Opera sources.