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George Kennan, R.I.P. (1904-2005)
danieldrezner.com ^ | Mar 18 2005 | Daniel W, Drezner

Posted on 03/19/2005 9:09:29 AM PST by Conservative_since_63

George Kennan, R.I.P. (1904-2005)

George Kennan, the first director of policy planning for the State Department, is dead at the age of 101. The New York Times obit by Tim Weiner and Barbara Crossette has more detail and background, but the Washington Post obit by J.Y. Smith has a paragraph that best captures Kennan's love-hate relationship with the U.S. foreign policy establishment:

Despite his influence, Mr. Kennan was never really comfortable in government or with the give-and-take process by which policy is made. He always regarded himself as an outsider. It grated on him when his advice was not heeded, more so because it often turned out that he had been more right than wrong. He had little patience with critics.

Kennan will forever be known as the author of the Long Telegram in 1946, the most famous State Department cable in history. Kennan later converted the telegram into a 1947 Foreign Affairs essay entitled, "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," from which the doctrine of containment.

(Excerpt) Read more at danieldrezner.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: coldwar; containment; foreinpolicy; georgekennan; obituary; ussovietrelations
A historical icon has passed... I hope he realized the satisfaction of seeing his own policy recommendation vindicated...
1 posted on 03/19/2005 9:09:32 AM PST by Conservative_since_63
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To: Conservative_since_63
But also a liberal who advocated arms control agreements with the Evil Empire.
2 posted on 03/19/2005 9:13:32 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Conservative_since_63

I read about him in The Wise Men by Halberstam. The book seemed to subtley denigrate them, I felt that they were the fellows saving our government.


3 posted on 03/19/2005 9:13:42 AM PST by Thebaddog (Dawgs off the coffee table.)
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To: Conservative_since_63

Re 'his policy recommendations..', McCullough's "Truman" includes much of Kennans opinions, including that the "Palestine situations was insoluble" - oil, Arabs and UN all a part of the history of 1947. Fascinating book.


4 posted on 03/19/2005 9:29:47 AM PST by seenenuf (Progressives are a threat to my children!)
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To: goldstategop

It was before the Gipper had arrived on the scene with his clarity of thought. Kennan's encirclement policy worked as long as we needed it.


5 posted on 03/19/2005 9:44:15 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: goldstategop; Conservative_since_63
But also a liberal who advocated arms control agreements with the Evil Empire.

Yes, Kennan seems to also be an enigma wrapped in a riddle, as Churchill described the Soviet Union. On one hand, Kennan wanted to contain the USSR with "unalterable counterforce at every point where they [USSR] show signs of encroaching", but to accomplish this "politically rather than militarily". At the same time warning that; "Soviet power was impervious to the logic of reason, and highly sensitive to the logic of force.

In many ways, Kennan was a classic "Intellectual". He knows a lot about what he knows. He does not know however, exactly what to do with what he knows. In the end he presents as much confusion as clarity.

He was correct when he stated that "If, consequently, anything were....to disrupt the Communist Party....Russia might be changed overnight from one of the strongest to one of the weakest and most pitiable of national societies". Prophetic indeed, but not a conclusion that any conservative with more than rudimentary knowledge of the Soviet system did not think already.

6 posted on 03/19/2005 10:04:31 AM PST by elbucko (A Feral Republican)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
It was before the Gipper had arrived on the scene with his clarity of thought.

Yes. Perhaps this concept should be paraphrased onto Kennan's headstone.

7 posted on 03/19/2005 10:08:56 AM PST by elbucko (A Feral Republican)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
It was before the Gipper had arrived on the scene with his clarity of thought.

Yes. Perhaps this concept should be paraphrased onto Kennan's headstone.

8 posted on 03/19/2005 10:10:09 AM PST by elbucko (A Feral Republican)
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