To get four U.S. airmen back from Hungary, the U.S. swallowed its pride and paid the kidnaper's price. The nation suffered a sense of angry shame and outraged honor. But there seemed to be no other course. President Harry Truman, boarding his plane for Christmas in Independence, was asked whether the U.S. intended to pay the ransom. Somberly, he countered: "What can you do?"
There seemed to be no constructive answers. Diplomatic and economic sanctions, vigorously applied, might still force Russia's outlaws to forswear their barefaced ransom racket, but the immediate problem was...
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