THE NATION: Winter Harvest

Ever since the cold war began, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. have been locked in a world-wide grapple for men's minds. Often it seemed that the U.S.S.R. was making giant strides ahead, particularly among the emergent new nationalists and neutralists of Asia and Africa. Last week the U.S. was winning new trust and confidence while the U.S.S.R. reaped a bitter harvest of distrust, disillusionment and despair.

During the 40 days of the world crisis, the trend to the U.S. was often lost in the gunsmoke; yet it was the manner in which the contestants were behaving in the test that affected the course of world opinion. U.S. Middle Eastern policy was the target of angry criticism in Europe and unofficial Washington, but it was precisely this policy that demonstrated to the world, In terms of high drama, the U.S.'s traditional adherence to the principles of law and justice. U.S. policy on Hungary was criticized as too little and too late (see FOREIGN NEWS), but nevertheless the U.S. was offering the Hungarians succor and refuge while the U.S.S.R. offered bloodshed and deportation to the steppes.

The New Heroes. Around the world as the Christmas festoons went up, the contrasting impact began to show. Only last spring, Iceland (pop. 158,000), lulled by Soviet coos of coexistence, had asked U.S. troops and airmen to pull out of the strategic air base of Keflavik; last week Iceland considered Budapest and reversed itself, asking the U.S. troops and airmen to please stay.

India was gripped by such a wave of articulate anti-Communist opinion that even Premier Nehru, World Neutralist No. 1, had to heed it. On the eve of his visit to Washington, Nehru still talked about a Communist thaw and a need to conciliate the Soviet Union, but he also had much kinder words for U.S. policy past and present, overflowing personal tributes for President Eisenhower and, most surprisingly, thoughts of stronger support for South Viet Nam's doughty anti-Communist President Ngo Dinh Diem, whom Nehru had once belittled as a U.S. puppet. "What good will the U.S. has not been able to achieve in the past," India's Statesman reported, "was accomplished overnight by a bold and imaginative decision."

Every day across the Arab world Eisenhower was hailed as a hero. While the ambassadors of Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey made a special call at the State Department in Washington and thanked the U.S. for its support, U.S. ambassadors in the Middle East reported a friendliness they had never known before.

The Next Task. Nowhere had the U.S. stand against aggression in Suez been more hotly criticized than in Britain and France, but last week, after a speech by Vice

President Richard Nixon that foreshadowed new U.S. economic aid (see below), British and French bitterness eased. Over all, Budapest cast its dark shadow. "Communist prestige," said a French Foreign Office spokesman, " has dropped to an alltime low in Europe."

In the free world, doubts, problems, deficiencies and divergences persisted, and events to come could well shake and Change the new trend toward unity. But the realization was spreading and crystallizing that the U.S. stands for peace and justice in the world. To turn that realization into a lasting asset is the next task of U.S. foreign policy.