WHO'LL FOLLOW BREZHNEV AND WILL HE BUY SALT?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400370038-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 16, 2004
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: June 13, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

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pL; ps,.GE `'' 13 June 1979
I;y David ::. Willis
St~'f correspondent of
The Christian Science P+{onitor
iyioscaw
"You can't go past Andrei 1%irilenko,"
said one earnest Kremlinologist here, dis-
cussing who President Carter might have to ~
deal with if ailing Soviet leader Leonid ~
Brezhnev should suddenly have to step
dawn_
Oa the eve of the Vienna summit, there's
renewed urgency in worldwide speculation
about Mr. Brezhnev's ability to continue in
office, and what would happen to detente if '
he should retire or pass oa
fir. Brezhnev is still very much chief of
t'ae Communist Party and head of-state, ap-
proving all major decisions. But he is de-
scribed by Westerners who have met him
as "nothing like Lhe man he was even two
or three years ago_" And it was the issue of
rss health that shifted the summit from
Washington to Vienna - a shorter trip for ~
ti