To act effectively in the world, it is first necessary to know who we are and who the Soviet Union is and what they are likely to do. The United States is the inheritor and the embodiment of a long struggle against arbitrary power. This country is the heir of the liberal, democratic tradition, whose roots are freedom. Facing the nature of the Soviet government on the other hand is an extremely unpleasant task. The Soviet Union has established the only empire existing in today's world, an empire that extends to all continents, an empire that from the very beginning has grown by the artful manipulation of symbols and the uninhibited and skillful use of violence. The political and social events that occur in every country that experience a Communist government are matters of hard fact. If the results are clear, so are the tactics. The empire grows as the Soviet Union brings resources and personnel drawn from all over the Soviet bloc to bear on small, helpless countries. The United States meanwhile is more inventive in finding reasons why it should not help peoples resist incorporation into the Soviet empire than in finding ways to help them resist. Still, the hunger for freedom, self-expression, and self-determination is indeed an enduring reality of peoples throughout the world. (BZ)