Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-04-24
Some Siqns of Lioht'

In his excellent address to the annual
Associated Press luncheon in New York,
Secretary of State Dulles has echoed
President Eisenhower in declaring that
hope and optimism must be cautious and
restrained in these days of changing
Soviet policy. And the same precaution-
airy note has been Sounded-both at home
and abroad-by numerous other respon-
sible men who realize that soft words
from the Kremlin, or mere tactical shifts,
do not in themselves mark the beginning
of bright new era.
There is good and obvious justifica-
ton for this wary attitude After all,
although Josef Stain is dead and gone,
the collective leaders" who have sue
ceeded him still hold Russia under tight
dictatorship, and they are feveriShly in
tent upon further developing Soviet mill
tary power which is already tremendous
"a fact pointedly emphasized by Nikita
khruShchev in his latest speech to the
British. Further, despite certain encour-
aging aspects of the Kremlin'S new line,
1t Is as yet much too early not to be
suspicious of that line as a thing designed
to pave the way for a communized world
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their guard and dissolving their defensive
alliances.
Yet, although caution is thus an i'm
perative for the free world at this time,
nothing could be less sensible than to 90
to the extreme of listening only to the
counsel of our fears and suSpicions-a
counsel that would have us reject out
OF hand all Soviet bids for understanding
and peace. Neither the President, the
Secretary of State nor any other Western
leader advises such course. On the con-
trary, our country and its allies are ready
and eager-aS they should be-to respond
aff1rmatively to whatever changes for the
better may now be taking place in the
USSR. Certainly, as Mr.. Dulles has put
1t, United States foreign policy is not
merely negative. We seek, above ALL to
advance the inevitable day when the
historic friendship between the Russian
and American people can again be fully
manifested. Therefore, we take deep
satisfaction from the fact that we can
today see within Russia some signs of
light which could mark the dawning of
that new day."
The signs of light" have been grow
ing fairly numerous They include the
deglorif1cation of Stain, the Kremlin's
conclliatory talk abroad, the downgrading
OF the secret police, the effort to give
russians greater sense of individual
freedom, and such other DEVELOPMENTS as
the attack on Stalinist purge trials based
on fraudulent confessions" Clearly. in
Mr.. Dulles words, these are indications
that
are at work. and that "a benign trans
formation may have begun" in earnest
within the Soviet empire. And so, as he
mas rightly emphasized, Our new task
is to build more on hope and less on
fear" and mot to seek to reverse change.
but to build constructively upon all
changes that hold a possibility of good"
Mr.. KhruShchev has just asked. SIS
IL not time that we become more intelli-
gent ana not shake our fists at each
other?" The answer, of course, is YES,
ana Mr.. Dulles reasonably hopeful coun-
sci Is in line with it. 1t is in line also
with President EiSenhower's own convic-
ton that the current of world history
flows toward freedom and that human
1ty's yearning for a decent peace can and
Will be fulfilled if all nations work to-
gether hard enough for it. In any event,
given mutual sincerity, given fewer re-
bluffs and counter-rebuffs, East and West
should surely be able to marshal enough
wit and wisdom to establish good and
enduring system of coexiStence worthy
of everyoneS trust. The alternative is
almost too terrible to contemplate in the
acknowledgement age.