Word: figurehead
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...fancy uniforms, he looks every inch a soldier but has never actually commanded anything more than a squad of cops. Bulganin owes his rank entirely to Stalin, who used him to insure the Communist Party's supremacy over the army. Bulganin, all his life, has cut a fine figurehead...
...appeared to take little part in the ensuing struggle for power. His oratory, though frequent, flowery and fiery, betrays no originality. "He is reasonable, intelligent and able," said an American diplomat who has met him often. But no Western observer rates Bulganin ,as a first-rate brain. A professional figurehead, he appears to have been chosen Premier because of his second-rate qualities, not in spite of them...
...turn grilled by U.S. Government agents, and the eventual loss of pier privileges forced the Poles to give up the transatlantic run. No Communist or proCommunist, Cwiklinski tried to coexist with the Polish satellite regime for the sake of his wife and two children. He gradually became a figurehead on his own ship, with all disciplinary matters handled by secret-police men. In 1953, tipped off by a friend that he was slated for a phony spy trial, the captain jumped ship in England and began writing his experiences...
...real ruler of the military junta was 36-year-old Lieut. Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, who in a test of strength with Naguib last February got himself made Premier and let Naguib stay on in a presidential figurehead job only because of Naguib's immense popularity in the streets. Since then, Nasser has felt increasingly confident of surviving without Naguib's prestige. Last week Nasser saw his chance, when a Moslem Brotherhood leader testified that Naguib had prior knowledge of a recent plot to kill Nasser...
Pakistan's new rulers were as strongly pro-U.S. as Ali, so Washington seemed as calm as Karachi. And as for Ali, now a figurehead Prime Minister, he finally called in reporters and said he was loyal to Ghulam. What would he do next? "I must gaze into a crystal I brought back from the U.S.," said Mohammed Ali, producing a miniature eight ball...