George Kennan and the Dilemmas of US Foreign PolicyOne of a select group of American foreign service officers to receive specialized training on the Soviet Union in the late 1920s and early 1930s, George Frost Kennan eventually became the American government's chief expert on Soviet affairs during the height of the Cold War. Drawing upon a wealth of original research, David Mayers' fascinating life of George Kennan examines his high-level participation in foreign policy-making and interprets his political and philosophical development within a historical framework. Mayers presents an engaging and lucid account of Kennan's training; his rise to prominence during the late 1940s and his policy failures; and his later roles as critic of America's external policy, advocate of détente with the Soviet Union, and proponent of nuclear arms limitation. Mayers also explores Kennan's complicated relationships with such important political figures and analysts as Dean Acheson, John Foster Dulles, and Walter Lippmann. |
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abroad according to Kennan Acheson administration allies ambassador American army atomic balance of power Bohlen bomb British Charles Bohlen China Chinese civil Cold Cold War communist continued country’s critics cultural Czech danger Davies defense democracy democratic Department diplomacy diplomatic domestic Eastern Europe economic embassy File 2-B forces Foreign Affairs foreign policy Foreign Service FRUS future George Kennan Germany Germany’s Ibid influence intellectual interests Japan Japanese Kennan believed Kennan Papers Korea late later Lippmann Marshall Plan Memoirs ment military moral Moscow National War College NATO Nazi never nuclear weapons official party peace Policy Planning Staff political position postwar Princeton problems Red Army regime Reith Lectures responsibility Roosevelt Russia SDPPSP secretary social society South Soviet Union Soviet-US relations Stalin Stevenson Third World tion Tito’s traditional Truman Truman Doctrine United University Press USSR Vietnam Washington Western York Yugoslav Yugoslavia
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Page 67 - How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gasmasks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing.
Page 5 - Foreign politics demand scarcely any of those qualities which are peculiar to a democracy; they require, on the contrary, the perfect use of almost all those in which it is deficient.
Page 87 - No one has been a more consistent opponent of Communism than I have for the last twenty-five years. I will unsay no word that I have spoken about it. But all this fades away before the spectacle which is now unfolding. The past, with its crimes, its follies, and its tragedies, flashes away. I see the Russian soldiers standing on the threshold of their native land, guarding the fields which their fathers have tilled from time immemorial.
Page 346 - In the light of these circumstances, the thoughtful observer of Russian-American relations will find no cause for complaint in the Kremlin's challenge to American society. He will rather experience a certain gratitude to a Providence which, by providing the American people with...
Page 233 - Are we to flee like haunted creatures from one defensive device to another, each more costly and humiliating than the one before, cowering underground one day, breaking up our cities the next, attempting to surround ourselves with elaborate electronic shields on the third, concerned only to prolong the length of our lives while sacrificing all the values for which it might be worthwhile to live at all?
Page 111 - It is difficult to see how these deficiencies can be corrected at an early date by a tired and dispirited population working largely under the shadow of fear and compulsion. And as long as they are not overcome, Russia will remain economically a vulnerable, and in a certain sense an impotent, nation...
Page 100 - Much depends on health and vigor of our own society. World communism is like malignant parasite which feeds only on diseased tissue. This is the point at which domestic and foreign policies meet. Every courageous and incisive measure to solve internal problems of our own society...
Page 111 - States entering with reasonable confidence upon a policy of firm containment, designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counterforce at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interests of a peaceful and stable world.
Page 141 - Any government that is willing to assist in the task of recovery will find full cooperation, I am sure, on the part of the United States Government. Any government which maneuvers to block the recovery of other countries cannot expect help from us. Furthermore, governments, political parties, or groups which seek to perpetuate human misery in order to profit therefrom politically or otherwise will encounter the opposition of the United States.
Page 8 - Nothing is more dangerous in wartime than to live in the temperamental atmosphere of a Gallup poll, always feeling one's pulse and taking one's temperature.