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But no matter what he does, even when abroad as head of a delegation, Vishinsky is essentially the instrument—the subordinate. When Molotov is present, Vishinsky speaks only when given the signal, usually remains a deferential pace behind. The No. 2 man loads other burdens patiently upon himself. At the Foreign Ministers conference in Moscow last spring, it was Vishinsky who stayed in the center box to lead the applause for the ballerinas at each intermission and at the end, while Host Molotov and the others dashed out for drinks.
On the Parapets. Against the background of this career, the warning that Andrei Vishinsky gave to the West last week was worth pondering. It meant that Vishinsky's masters, whose people and land put Soviet Russia astride half the world, had no more intention than they had ever had of cooperating with the West, save in brief tactical moments. Did his outburst mean that the fanatics of the Kremlin were condemning not only the peaceful part of the world, but the patient Russian people, exhausted by years of dictatorship and permanent economic depression, to World War III? Only the Kremlin knew. Certainly, more conflict lay immediately ahead at U.N. This week, the Assembly's steering committee voted (over strenuous Russian objection) to add George Marshall's new proposals to the working agenda. Without objection from the U.S., the committee agreed that Vishinsky's resolution on "warmongers" should be debated, too. But inevitable conflict did not mean inevitable war. It did apparently mean that the present generation was facing perennial duty on the parapets.
* Last week, as the five treaties finally went into effect, and U.S. troops were getting ready to pull out of Italy, Palmiro Togliatti's Communists were talking revolution; Tito's Yugoslav troops were bulging into Trieste and menacingly taking stations along the new Yugoslav-Italian frontier. In Rumania, Hungary and Bulgaria, Communist-backed minorities had matters firmly under control. Finland was tied to the Russian economic and security bloc. France was infiltrated with Communist power. China was gripped by civil war. Persia and Turkey lived precariously in the shadow of the Communist ax. Greece was directly threatened.
* The late J. P. Morgan died in 1943. TIME Inc. is controlled by the stockholdings of its officers and employees; the two largest shareholders are Editor in Chief Luce and President Larsen.
* In 1903 the Russian Social Democratic Party split into the Bolsheviks (majority) led by Lenin and the Mensheviks (minority). Often the Bolsheviks were the minority and the Mensheviks were the majority, but Russia is Russia, and Communists will be Communists.