Sentence:  This leader must be a man who lives above illusions that heretofore have shaped the foreign policy of the United States , namely that Russia will agree to a reunited Germany , that the East German government does not exist , that events in Japan in June 1960 were Communist-inspired , that the true government of China is in Formosa , that Mao <WSD>was</WSD> the evil influence behind Khrushchev at the Summit Conference in Paris in May 1960 , and that either China or Russia wants or expects war . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)