Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-04-16
The Final and Real Test

Like nearly everybody else, Director
Allen w. Dulles of the Central Intelli-
gence Agency still is not quite sure Of
all the why's, whereforeS and possible
consequences of the Kremlin's continu-
ing anti-Stalin campaign. But some of
his conjectures-as voiced the other day
in speech to the Los Angeles World
Affairs Council-throw at least a little
additional light on the great puzzle. And
they have the further virtue of serving
as warning against optimistic conclu-
humping of kind that might be-
guile the free world into letting down
its guard.
It Is possible, Of course, to read a
number of hopeful meanings into what
RuSsia'S collective leaders" are doing to
deglorify Stain and associate them
selves from him, though they were once
his closest and most fawning collabo-
rators. Mr.. Dulles believes that they
have been motivated only in part by a
desire to acquire International respect
ability; the more basic reason for their
action, in his Judgment, is that they have
been driven to 1t by domestic presSureS.
There are now great numbers Of edu-
Gated people in the Soviet Union, and
they have grown increasingly critical and
FESTIVE with the passing of the years.
SO 1t Is not unreasonable to assume that
Nikita KhruShchev and company have
found it wise and perhaps even impera-
tive to placate this body of opinion by
carrying out purge of Stalinism"-
purge containing promise of higher
~ livy{1a g.
tyranny and steady progress toward gen.
uine individual liberty and democratic
government.
However, although the deglorif1ca-
ton line creates serious problems for the
internal unity and discipline of the So
Wet and international Communist move
ment, and although 1t conceivably may
be the forerunner of great liberalizing
developments in the USSR, there is a
world Of difference between a mere PROM
Use and its ful1llment. For his own part,
while not ruling out the possibility that
the Kremlin's present course may lead
eventually to good changes, Mr.. Dulles is
not inclined to be optimistic. AS he sees
the situation, "a dead and diShonored
Stain :. :. is likely to be merely a device
with which the long-suffering Rus
sian people are, fear, to be deceived in
their expectation of freer and better
life." He suspects, in short, that Mr..
Khrushchev and the other collective
leaders" are simply doing what they are
impelled to do to consolidate themselves
in power, and he also suspects that they
may yet narrow down to another one
man tyranny.
In any event, as the CHA director has
warned, "The final and real test of the
Soviet leaders will remain their willing
ness to accept those basic institutional
changes that can give the Russian people
and the world in general genuine assur-
ance that one-man or three or four
man dictatorship cannot again plot in
secret the massive domestic or inter-
national crimes" carried out by the
Kremlin under Stain. In that respect,
the changes that are most needed call
for the creation Of opposition parties, an
independent judiciary and free press.
Quite obviously, until such institutions
are brought into being in the USSR,
there will be dangerous tyranny over
there, and we and our allies had better
not slacken in our armed vigilance
against it.