SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

We won't do "Short Takes" tonight because it's New Year's Eve.  In liberal New York I actually got an invitation to go somewhere.  Miracles happen.

We'll end 2014 by recalling three past New Year's Eves.  On December 31, 1941, Americans were still reeling from Pearl Harbor, and reading about Allied defeats, one right after the other.  Many Americans thought we were through, finished.  But little more than three and a half years later, World War II ended with complete Allied victories, and the emergence of the United States as a superpower.

On December 31, 1950, Americans were distressed and fearful again.  President Truman had courageously led a coalition of nations to resist the Soviet-sponsored invasion of South Korea.  For a time, the effort, led by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, was spectacularly successful.  Then China intervened, pushing American troops back.  By New Year's Eve we thought we could lose the war.  But the replacement of MacArthur by Matthew Ridgway, and a new strategy, stabilized the line.  The war ended with a truce in July of 1953, and South Korea was saved as an independent nation.  Today it is a firm ally with one of the strongest economies in the world.

On December 31, 1979, Americans faced another period of despair.  We had experienced years of drift and cynicism – the counterculture of the late sixties, assassinations, riots, the Nixon scandals, the political betrayal of our effort in Vietnam, the pathetic Carter administration, a declining economy marked by stagflation, and then the taking of American hostages in Iran.  A friend of mine asked, "Can we do anything right?"  We didn't realize on that New Year's Eve that great change would come in 11 months with the election of Ronald Reagan and a new morning in America. 

It's always morning in America.  Have that thought on New Year's Day.

December 31, 2014