Klement Gottwald's Red-style Horatio Alger story had taken him from a Moravian carpenter's shop to Hradcany Castle and power over all Czechoslovakia. Last week his body lay in state in the castle's mirrored Spanish Hall, where Habsburgs had danced in a brighter time. The foreign source of his climb to power was never more apparent than in his funeral: the bands played Russian music; the troops used the Russian parade step and carried Russian machine pistols. The most notable mourners were Russia's Marshal Bulganin and Red China's Chou Enlai.
Prime Minister Antonin...
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