Nation: Hope and Fear

They have got through the past 5½ months as best they could, trying to keep their minds off what was happening in the U.S. embassy in Tehran by performing the day's normal routines or taking on extra projects around the house, such as making draperies for the family room. They have waited anxiously for letters—most have received a few—and, half in fear and half in hope, they have tuned in several times a day to news broadcasts. In this atmosphere of suspended animation, the families of the hostages last week welcomed President Carter's...