Everybody from movie stars to dictators can use front men. In the threatened Berlin crisis, Khrushchev's front man is Walter Ulbricht, 68, the grim, goateed boss of East Germany. When Khrushchev tries reassurances, Ulbricht offsets them with threats. When Khrushchev assures the West that he has no thought of a Berlin blockade, Ulbricht growls that supplies to the U.S., British and French garrisons will be blocked and their planes shot down.
Chief of the East German Communists for 15 years, Ulbricht is a cynical master of duplicity who fought his way to the top by years of sycophantic loyalty to Moscow. Today,...
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