The Protracted Conflict: Non-Event in Moscow

One learns on good authority that the nerve centers of the Reagan Administration were virtually paralyzed by the news of the death of Brezhnev and the emergence of Yuri Andropov to succeed him as General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of the Soviet Union. High officials and Kremlinologists, summoned posthaste, were colliding in the corridors of power, scurrying hither and thither with their advice to the President on the proper way to handle the new situation and the most suitable course to adopt.

In the end, it must be said, despite or because of this explosion of bureaucratic energy, the President said exactly the right things and sent exactly the right people (Vice President Bush and Secretary of State Shultz) to Moscow for the imposing funeral the Party organized for the man who had led it for nearly one-third of the history of the Soviet Union.

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Brian Crozier

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One learns on good authority that the nerve centers of the Reagan Administration were virtually paralyzed by the news of the death of Brezhnev and the emergence of Yuri Andropov to succeed him as General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of the Soviet Union. High officials and Kremlinologists, summoned posthaste, were colliding in the corridors of power, scurrying hither and thither with their advice to the President on the proper way to handle the new situation and the most suitable course to adopt.

In the end, it must be said, despite or because of this explosion of bureaucratic energy, the President said exactly the right things and sent exactly the right people (Vice President Bush and Secretary of State Shultz) to Moscow for the imposing funeral the Party organized for the man who had led it for nearly one-third of the history of the Soviet Union.