President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vyacheslav M. Molotov, 1942.

Washington Star Collection, Washingtoniana Division, D.C. Public Library

When Vyacheslav M. Molotov, the Soviet Union’s foreign minister, visited President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House during wartime in May 1942, he did so surreptitiously, calling himself Mr. Brown. But maître d’ Alonzo Fields noticed “the foxy glint” in Molotov’s eye, and saw right through the subterfuge.

Alonzo Fields’ journal entry about Vyacheslav Molotov, 1942 Courtesy Mayland Fields