Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-01-01
A New Yeur-And Us

Ao 1901 UeSlI1S, an atmosphere OF
uncertainty blankets the world. Inter-
national tension is greater today than
1t was IL months ago. AS always in the
troubled history of mankind, there is a
commingling of hopes and fears, and
none OF us can divine what the morrow
will bring. The new year may be better
than 1856; or it may be worse. The only
thing we can be reasonably sure of is
that we ourselves, by the decisions we
make, by the things we do or do not do,
will shape it more than it shapes us.
After all, year is just year. When
1t daWnS, it does not dawn as a power in
itself or piece of the future over which
we have no control. For the fate of men
and nations, in any period of time, is pri-
marily fate of their own making-a
good one or bad one, depending upon
how they themselves act, whether wisely
or unwiSely, nobly or ignobly. And so it
will be in 1857. The events that unfold
during it will not be born of themselves;
they will be born, instead, of human
Brightness or human error as displayed by
peoples and their governments in the
weeks and months ahead.
cerned, we have reason to look back over
the old year and forward to the new with
measured confidence. Here at home, al
though problems abound, we are on the
whole in sound shape, economically and
otherwise, and we should be able to con-
tinue that way through 1857 if we con-
duct our domestic affairs with foresight
and common sense. AS for our interna-
tional position, we obviously face great
challenges. The world is in tense and
uneasy state full of actual and potential
dangers, but we have COPIED effectively
with comparable situations in the past,
. and there is solid ground for believing
that we and our allies still have enough
vision and courage to cope just as effec-
lively with the difficulties and threats
that confront us now. NATO, damaged
by the Anglo-French military expedition
against Egypt, is undergoing repairs that
promise its restoration, and we can be
similarly hopeful-though by no means
complacent-about what can be done to
head off Soviet penetration and DONNA
ton of the Middle East
In this connection, we ought not to
underestimate the problems bedeviling
Niklta KhruShchev and his colleagues In
Russia itself, there is economic Stringency
of the most severe kind, and there is also
much evidence of mass reStiveness And
I the satellite empire in Europe is now an
anti-Soviet volcano that seetheS and boils
more than ever before Thus, in Poland
there has been a controlled eruption that
may yet go out of control, and in Hun
gary there has been an about profree-
dom explosion which Moscow has been
able to answer only with naked force
and terror-a savage repression that has
rocked communism everywhere and dealt
a major blow to the Kremlin's prestige
and influence in many key areas of the
globe.
Indeed, as the new year starts, Mos
COW seems in number of ways to have
much more to worry about than does any
s free government. Accordingly, if they
act together affirmatively, with resolute
wills, the United States and all like
minded nations should find it possible in
1857 not merely to preserve peace but
also to strengthen and advance the cause
of justice and liberty in the world. Now
that 1856 has passed into history, only
the faint of heart and the defeatiStS will
fail to welcome its successor with a kind
of determined hopefulnesS.