Evening star., 1954-12-26
Review Of The Year Patience, Fortitude Keynotel954

horizon this time grew more than IS miles
high. spread across more than 100 miles
of sky and killed every thing on earth
within 50.mile diameter.
It was. of course. the explosion of q
hydrogen bomb Set OF on lonely Pacific
island SO scientists could see what really
big bomb could do. II Jared people all over
into rethinking their basic cold-war atti-i
tudeS
The public had known for several years
that hydrogen explosion was theoretically
possible. They had even read news stories
In the fan Of 1852 limiting that such bomb
had been exploded at Eniwetok. But this
March the reading and TV-vieWing public
was given some Of the facts of the hydro
gen age Al film story of the 1852 blast was
released, and at the same time new explo-.
sions Of even greater size were announced.
The Focts
The facts: Bombs were available with
1000 times the power Of the bomb which
leveled Hiroshima. One could kill-through
heat, blast or adiation-anything left
unprotected Is miles away from the blast.
Radioactive dust from the cloud could kill
humans hundreds Of miles away. depend
ing on how the wind was blowing tone
the blast did get fatal doSe) "A few squad
ronS Of planes loaded with hydrogen bombs
could wipe out the industrial and gov
ernmental complex Of any nation. INCLUDE
ing the United States.
The world asked the question, could any
{ thing possibly be gained by fighting hy-
drogen war? The answer In the Kremlin
was not known but the answer in the free
world took the form Of new upsurge OF
neutralism. The way had been paved for
peaceful co-existence."
Policy Re- Examination
There was re-examination Of American
foreign policy In March. In effect the ad-
miniStration backed of bit from Its mas
sive-retaliation policy and announced that
1t would oppose Red transgressionS. but in
q flexible way Atomic war would not be
the only weapon in the American arsenal
The American policy obviously was
headed for test. The Communists IN
Indo-C China had been knocking at the gates
of key Wet Nam outpost. Dien Bien Phu,
since January. but in March the siege
started in earnest. The French. who were
inclined to give UP their foreign war and
the United States. which wanted the fight
to go on to victory. believed Diem Bien Phu
would be the key.
Back in Washington Senator Mccarthy
was stealing headlines again in his war
with the Army. President Eisenhower
praised Gen. Zwicker and, while avoiding
reference to specific incident. made 1t
clear he thought a. certain Senator was
treading on the rights Of the executive.
Flonders' Blost
Senator Ralph Flanders. Republican. Of
Vermont joined the quarrel with q his
toric speech criticizing Senator Mccarthy.
Then the Army started Its offensive. 1t
made public Appoint report purporting
I to tell in detail how Senator Mccarthy
ana his committee aides, Counsel Roy
Cof1n and Staff Head Francis Carr, had
used their official positions to pressure
the Army into giving favored treatment
to c. David Schine, wealthy young
draftee who had once been an unpaid staff
man of the Mccarthy investigating sub
committee.
The Mccarthy defense was q series Of
memos purporting to show the Secretary
of the Army and his legal counsel had
tried to use Pvt. Schine as a hostage" In
order to block the Mccarthy probe Of the
Army
The Senator's own committee decided to
investigate the charges but quickly begged
down on procedure and selection Of a spe-
cial staff.
Only one small group Of Senators was
occupied with Senator Mccarthy, how
ever. The rest had work to do and they
did it. Most notable action Of the month:
Excise taxes were cut, and q bill to reduce
income taxes got half way through Con-
gress. *