THE NATIONS: Quarter to Eleven

Molotov said "an Anglo-American bloc" was waging "an offensive against the Soviet Union." Peter Orlov, commentator for Radio Moscow, told the Russian people that "American reactionaries are trying to ... [build] up an Anglo-American military bloc . . . for a third World War."

Britons and Americans knew the Russian charges were untrue; but they also sensed last week that the Byrnes-Molotov "debate" (more accurately described as a duet of denunciation) on the Paris conference had put Russia and the West further apart than ever. How serious was the cleavage?

Byrnes's denial of the bloc's existence was true, in the sense that...

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