(7 of 7)
British officialdom believes that Molotov will be the Lepidus to Malenkov's Antony and Beria's Octavian. "It's as though he has been thrown across the gap between the old and the new regime, like a Bailey bridge. While Molotov's got a use, they'll use him. But once they've got their feet firmly planted on the other bank, the bridge will be discarded."
The discarding process will not be easy, for Old Bolshevik Molotov, as George Kennan puts it, is "a smart old fox. He has extraordinary qualities of survival, or he wouldn't have lived through the Stalin regime." In Communist eyes, Molotov's preservatives are great ability and slavish loyalty. At a time when internal Soviet necessity demands a double-headed policy of making war through peace, Vyacheslav Molotov is an extremely useful man.
*Her brother, Sam Carp, is a wealthy businessman in Bridgeport, Conn.