Sentence:  `` Quoting Mr. Kennan 's phrase that anything would <WSD>be</WSD> better than a policy which led inevitably to nuclear war , he [ Toynbee ] says that anything is better than a policy which allows for the possibility of nuclear war '' . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)