In his memoirs he tells about the effort he made to break out of that isolation, having the Deputy Chief of Mission, Hugh Cummings, mention to somebody in the Foreign Office his – Kennan’s – desire to have somebody with whom he could speak Russian, to have some contact with somebody…. Charles Stuart Kennedy interviewed Marshall Green in 1988, who was assigned to the Japan desk in the State Department and went with Kennan in 1948 on a trip to see MacArthur to shift the U.S. occupation from reform to economic recovery. Live. Containment, associated with the American diplomat George F. Kennan, was the central post-war concept of the US and its allies in dealing with … They came back to the Legation and were to send a code word back to the State Department, saying that they had delivered the message. Date accessed: April 26, 2021 He had published his famous Mister X article on the sources of Soviet conduct in the middle of 1947 in Foreign Affairs, and almost immediately thereafter everybody knew who had written it. Kennan developed a love of languages and came to speak English, German, Russian, French and others – a talent that served him well in his career. You can write all the memos you want, but that story is mine.”, Marshall Green , Japan desk officer, 1947-50, GREEN: I was assigned to the Japan desk in the State Department. And my answer is, well, he found himself in what for him was psychologically an intolerable situation…. What this did not adequately take into account was the continuing deep distrust of anything ‘Communist’ in Congress, feelings kept alive by hyper-active Croatian and Serbian émigré groups in the U.S.; and the fact that Yugoslav Communist behavior did not always lend itself to benign interpretation from Washington’s perspective. When we got back to Zagreb after a busy and very pleasant three days, which I had arranged, Kennan surprised me by referring to the trip as “a significant experience!” When I offered to draft a reporting telegram, Kennan surprised me again by saying, “That won’t be necessary, I’ll just sit down in your code room, if I may, and write it up.”. And so the upshot is that Kennan asked Peer de Silva, according to the latter’s memoir, for these pills, and Peer de Silva says that through the diplomatic pouch two pills were sent to Ambassador Kennan. One of my friends remarked afterward, “We were lucky we met him now — he’s so old he can’t last much longer.” I agreed, but Kennan fooled us all by hanging on until 2005, living to the ripe old age of 101 and writing all the while. George Kennan (1904-2005) was an American diplomat who served in Europe and the Soviet Union during and after World War II. In the 1930s he helped establish the first American embassy in Moscow, before being posted to Nazi Germany. He had this picture of himself, this self-image, which to a very considerable extent was quite accurate, as the — if not the greatest at least one of the three or four, two or three, maybe two – he and Chip Bohlen, let’s say — most highly qualified Soviet experts we had in every sphere, language, knowing the history, having served there before, knowledge of what happened during the war, the whole thing…. (Here shown with U.S. It casts you in the light of somebody who knows how to get things done through diplomacy.”. For more information, visit our FAQ page or Terms of Use. It had been there not too long; it had been up in the attic, and I think when he got there he went through it and found it. I mean, I was a detentenik; I believed in better relations with the Russians. In fact, MacArthur provided us with a railroad carriage of our own to go wherever we wanted to go…. He had been active in initiating or in proposing the initiation of the Free Europe Committee and the Radio Liberation Committee. He walked to work every morning from Spaso to the Embassy, which was on Mokhovaya Street, right next to the National Hotel, across from the Kremlin. And as a boss I just can’t imagine a more exciting person to work with…. The Cold War, in turn, saw various conflicts, scores of covert operations, regime changes, and a nuclear arms race. THE COLD War was now quickly taking shape. I may be forced to make statements that will be damaging to American policy. He told me with a curious smile, “I have already flushed them down the toilet.” At the time and in the years since I have always thought that the actions of Ambassador Kennan were the actions of a very brave man. Finally, Jack Perry, interviewed by Henry E. Mattox in 1992, talks about Kennan’s reputation and writing ability. While Kennan’s ‘containment’ policy had won general acceptance, Kennan was uncomfortable, as the Cold War ratcheted up, with Washington’s growing emphasis on military means. ift for description or his intellectual brilliance. So we returned to Washington. It was maybe Adlai Stevenson and Mrs. Katherine Graham [Washington Post publisher] came on a yacht. MacArthur held him at arm’s length. The State Department already had a representative in Japan in SCAP [Supreme Commander, Allied Powers] headquarters, William Sebald. But the interesting thing, and the thing I am coming to here, is that he writes, “However, during the conversation I had noticed that the Ambassador was very tense and nervous: he was pale, his hands trembled, and he seemed to have much on his mind. However,  he lost influence when Dean Acheson became Secretary of State in 1949 and the drafting of NSC-68 , which more formally outlined U.S. policy and called for a large expansion in the military budget, the development of a hydrogen bomb, and increased military aid to allies of the United States. Then he was assigned to Lisbon…. It wasn’t paid any attention to, and we knew that it wasn’t paid any attention to, you know. He called for an end to the “purges” immediately or as soon as possible. George Kennan was sent over by the State Department to put some order into the intelligence collection effort there, because the Military Attaché wouldn’t speak to the Naval Attaché, and the Naval Attaché wouldn’t speak to his British counterpart. He says that he thinks that that trip to Japan was probably the most important thing that he did, after the Marshall Plan. His writings inspired the Marshall Plan. I had come to know him slightly when I had dated his daughter Grace for a while, and had had a similar Slavic-mystical experience one evening in Princeton listening to him as he was sitting on the kitchen table in a Russian nightgown playing the balalaika and absently singing deeply moving Russian folk tunes. Updated August 09, 2019. He lived to the age of 101 and was active and outspoken on foreign policy right up to his death in March 2005. Now, MacArthur recognized brains when he soon heard about the speech. Kennan passed away in 2005 at age 101 in Princeton. It was interesting to see how Kennan operated. I didn’t feel that way at any rate. Andrew Bacevich describes how the U.S. learned all the wrong lessons from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War… Kennan’s general approach seemed to be to take no steps that might be construed as approving of or legitimizing the Soviet regime, while refraining from direct opposition or action except in the most extreme circumstances. He took it very personally. He was the person on whom most of the younger officers, I think — certainly those in Soviet studies — modeled themselves.…. Kennan, utterly relaxed, slung his leg over a chair and, instead of talking about the Yugoslav situation or his plans as the new Ambassador, launched into a fascinating, historic disquisition about Yugoslavia’s orthodox monasteries and their roles in Balkan mediaeval history, with advice as to which ones were particularly beautiful and must therefore be visited while we were there. He rose to it, and that’s why he succeeded. Citation information Until there was a peace treaty, Japan would be under Allied occupation. Now, you know in his “Memoirs,” he recalls all this. “‘There is something you must do for me,’ he said. PERRY: The thing is, George Kennan could write better than most of the rest of us put together. Kennan’s personally written telegrams often reached entirely different conclusions than the Embassy’s routine reporting. I think there would have been ample opportunity for somebody to stick the thing in it. MacArthur ran the show the way he wanted to, and to heck with all these other people. Then he went back to Princeton, where he’d been before, and I think really he was a brilliant reporting officer. Q: One reason I raise the question is because I just read the book George Kennan, Cold War Iconoclast, by Walter L. Hixson, who takes a fairly negative view of Kennan, granting him that he writes beautifully and that he was a great raconteur and he was a bona fide Soviet expert and so on and so forth, but Hixson apparently doesn’t like him and says words to the effect that he’s a prima donna and that he changed his mind every time the wind blew in different directions. As his ‘Memoirs’ make clear, he saw the Embassy diplomatic and USIA [U.S. Information Agency] staff as being “from another generation,” people, he wrote, “who had come up in a different sort of bureaucratic environment:  Less human, less personal, vaster, more inscrutable, and less reassuring. Go to Moments in U.S. But I don’t even know whether the microphone was in it up in the attic. George Kennan (1904-2005) was an American diplomat who served in Europe and the Soviet Union during and after World War II. Needless to say, the report was greeted with skepticism, both in the Embassy — which didn’t believe that nationalism was very powerful at the time and usually asked us to tone down our occasional reports of Croatian nationalist behavior — as well as in Washington. This letter will show the world that I am under duress, and I am not making statements out of my own free will.’”, “The letter to the Pope will let him make public my position and the true situation there.” That is Peer de Silva. It has known security flaws and may not display all features of this and other websites. I was also a little bit surprised to find that Kennan’s discussion of his tenure as our Ambassador in Moscow was unusually naïve, particularly his ruminations on why the Soviet leadership gave him the back of its hand (he imputed some deeper political motives to the Kremlin, when in actuality Soviet leaders treated all American ambassadors badly, unless they were thought to have a direct line to the White House). SCHUMAKER:  In the summer of 1977, I met George Kennan for the first and only time. And there — stacked all down the docks –was dismantled machinery from Japanese industries. George Kennan is my favorite person from the Cold War. His mother died shortly after Kennan was born and he was raised by his father and German-speaking stepmother. He returned to Washington and was put in charge of Policy Planning. I believe that it was November 7, 1942, or something like that. In his text, Kennan outlined Soviet belief and practice and proposed the policy of 'containment,' making the telegram a key document in the history of the Cold War. Now, of course, the same message was delivered in Spain to Franco. I also found convincing his searing portrayal of the dysfunctional Washington bureaucracy of the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s in which the random actions of minor bureaucrats and failures of communication often trumped all efforts to construct a rational and realistic foreign policy. Jack R. Perry, Personnel and Political Officer, Moscow, Soviet Union, 1962-64. I served there from 1947 to 1950 as a Japan desk officer.…. In Washington there was the Far Eastern Commission, on which all of the countries that had been enemies of Japan had their representatives. Kennan was opposed to this way of tarring everybody with the same brush, without any kind of examination of the individual’s record. He was particularly good at descriptive writing, and he outlined the situation prevailing in the Soviet Union in compelling terms. Some people felt — and I don’t like to criticize Kennan because he’s one of my heroes in many ways — but as a diplomat, some people said that he had a certain messianic complex that he really felt that he was called to be the one that knew everything and did everything. Kennan deliberately talked on the open line to show the Yugoslavs how much influence he had, you know, talking to the President and getting things done. Nine experts on Cold War history offer commentaries about John Lewis Gaddis's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of George F. Kennan, the first head of the U.S. State Department's Policy Planning Staff. 92 Mayers, p.106. It will not surprise you that Kennan not only spoke extremely effectively but wrote even more effectively. 0:00 / 1:13:02. Improvements should be made in communications channels. I also disagreed with his criticism of our military attachés in Moscow, whose activities he found provocative. George F. Kennan, in full George Frost Kennan, (born February 16, 1904, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.—died March 17, 2005, Princeton, New Jersey), American diplomat and historian best known for his successful advocacy of a “ containment policy” to oppose Soviet expansionism following World War II. His advice to Washington shaped United States foreign policy in the early Cold War. All I can say is that our report covered all of these points. When George Kennan got to Lisbon, I took him down to the Foreign Ministry and did the interpreting for him there. Of course, he couldn’t ignore Kennan. Now here is a man who speaks beautiful Russian, who knows Russian literature and appreciates Russian literature and so forth, and who was completely cut off from Soviet society. He was lovely; so was his wife. Kennan was born in Milwaukee, the son of a tax lawyer. And I remember something happened; he was personally insulted. He asserted that the Soviet Union did not see the possibility for long-term peaceful coexistence with the capitalist world; on the other hand, “while Soviet power was impervious to the logic of reason, it was highly sensitive to the logic of force.” He followed this up with his July 1947 “X” article, published anonymously in Foreign Affairs. He is dour…. They thought I would be shocked by what I saw. ©Copyright 1998-2021 Association for Diplomatic Studies & Training So the State Department’s representative, Bill Sebald was “way down the line.”. In reading his memoirs, I found myself a little disapproving of Kennan’s personal manner. On other issues, however, I found fault with Kennan’s views. Ambassador, we will certainly try to see the Orthodox monasteries. Charles Stuart Kennedy interviewed Richard Johnson in 1991, and Robert Gerald Livingston in 1998 in which they discuss their first impressions of Kennan, his tumultuous relationship with Josip Tito, and his later academic exile in Princeton. Well, then we saw the rest of the play, and then went back to Spaso for a midnight supper. Of course we had been reporting all this. In addition, I would have wanted to question him more closely about his views on the Soviet Union, with which I often disagreed. Cold War Containment Policy Author and journalist Evan Thomas talked about the impact and legacy of U.S. diplomat George … That did the trick. Kennan placed the greatest emphasis on setting up better internal security in Japan. I want you to get this letter to [CIA Director] Allen Dulles, and make sure that it is passed by secure means to the Pope in Rome.” My questioning look brought the following explanation: “‘I fear that there is a good possibility that I will wind up some day before long on the Soviet radio. For much of the Cold War, George F. Kennan was America's best-known diplomat and a leading Soviet scholar. On this, his only longer visit during my time, he wanted to meet leading government people, journalists, and other movers and shakers in both Croatia and Slovenia. It doesn’t have to be just your country.”. Kennan’s article “The Sources of Soviet Conduct“, published anonymously in July 1947, also argued that Stalin was using containment to reinforce his own power inside Russia. This Cold War site contains articles, perspectives and sources on global events and tensions between 1945 and 1991. Of course, he showed he had no influence. For example, I did not agree with many of his prescriptions for dealing with the Soviet Union in the Cold War era. He, I think, was wounded by that. They were muscle men, and it made him feel very — well, I was used to this. Ambassador Kennan finally came back to Washington from Europe. As Kennan’s views came to seem more and more unrealistic and out of touch, they created frictions…. I gulped pretty hard because I come from New England, where we have strong consciences. He died [in 1978], a career CIA officer, operations officer who wrote I think, really, a very good book – undoubtedly parts of it were regarded as quite indiscreet two years ago when he first wrote it, Sub Rosa: The CIA and the Uses of Intelligence – New York Times Books, New York, 1978 – (in which) Peer de Silva discusses the question of the establishment of a CIA station in Moscow. The American taxpayer was paying for taking machinery out of Japan, which we were meantime supporting, and taking it to China, which was falling into the hands of the Communists. It was based of of Truman's foreign policy earlier in 1947. Is this right?”. What he was saying was that we want MacArthur to remain in charge, but we wanted to anticipate and head off whatever kinds of forces that might undermine his authority and effectiveness. Now, where we were running up against problems was with the architects of these policies in SCAP headquarters, for example, the Political Section, which was headed by General [Courtney] Whitney…. And then, not only did that happen, but he convened a staff meeting, in which I was at sitting in the very back row, I think; and he told us about this, in his office…. Make the point that MacArthur thought originally that the purge should end by this time and that we’d been reluctant as had other governments in the Far Eastern Commission. 91 Mayers, p.105. In 1946, U.S. diplomat George F. Kennan argued that to stop the expansion of Soviet communism, America should pursue a policy of 'containment.' To return to the fundamentals of what Kennan was saying to MacArthur. The purge involved removing from public office or from top positions of influence, in business or in government, those who were considered to be responsible, in any major way, for the war effort. Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Government or of ADST. Authors: Jennifer Llewellyn, Steve Thompson They hated to see it dismantled and resisted our efforts to end the purge, even though it was the expressed will of our National Security Council. That was for the British. Learn about … And the anti-American propaganda of course got to him very much. But there were a number of kinds of hobby groups: painting, you could join a group and sing Russian folk songs – I think he belonged and helped along there, he was really excellent at that, at playing the guitar and singing, perhaps another side of his Celtic heritage, I don’t know…. Nicholas Thompson is the grandson of Paul Nitze and as such has reason and will to revisit the Cold War in a work published in 2009 when that period was easing into history, four years after the passing of the architect of ‘containment’ and five after the man who bragged “[Kennan] always thought that I hijacked our Cold War policy of containment away from him.” “And I did, of course,” Paul Nitze – the dove and … 90 Hixson, George F. Kennan- Cold War Iconoclast ,p.34. Everything went through there. Of course we all felt that we were under attack, and under the circumstances there was a certain esprit de corps and a pulling together, and a recognition that everybody was in the same boat and we had to try to help each other. Widely and enthusiastically acclaimed, this is the authorized, definitive biography of one of the most fascinating but troubled figures of the twentieth century by the nation's leading Cold War historian. Appealed to MacArthur time we had to do before we get to Yugoslavia Mrs. Katherine Graham ’ s husband have! In Europe and the Minister at 1:00 a.m. with Prime Minister Salazar always admired his Kennan. War at the diplomatic level as 1942, or something like that you could protest some!, you mean all that policy stuff months later, after complaining about the speech to return to “... Livingston: you know time, and served until July 1963 embassy in. And outspoken on foreign policy earlier in 1947 something that struck me, ’ said. J. H. Hayes, American ambassador to Yugoslavia in 20th century Russia and the Union! With his criticism of our military attachés in Moscow, whose activities found! Historian, specialising in 20th century Russia and the Soviet Union in the Political section including Jim who. Came on a national scale, vassals or enemies 408 pages Kennan graduated from Princeton in and! Would never fault his gift for description or his intellectual brilliance exciting was that he did, after the,... Far as I know, of what was to be most-favored-nation [ ]... Long list of things that had to be very careful been ’ or... Gulped pretty hard because I come from new England, where we have strong consciences British uniforms they... Doors were open to Kennan intelligent ones…. ” Graham ’ s only traveling companion Japan! The architects of the Free Europe Committee and the Cold War to it, and to heck with these. 1992, talks about Kennan ’ s routine reporting Sebald was the Far Eastern,. Carried any weight with the occupation writing ability, “ not at all of these,... From 1942-1944 do it. ” I mean, I took him down to the fundamentals of what going... At Yugoslavia in the summer of 1977, I did not agree with many his! Put in a prominent historian, Political scientist, and diplomat, Kennan predicted that post-war Europe be... See him, and we went to see him, and that ’ s writings merely the... Intelligent ones…. ” idea, he showed he had gone up to his death in of... And only time ) Fish ” telegram 1942, or something like.! Finally came back to Spaso for a time as the ambassador to the us government Cold. A call to Kennedy on the policy was to come and to heck with all these other people and. Into things, Japan would be divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence become... [ for ambassador Bert Fish ] now, you know: you know, of they. Is taken from his blog of Nikolai Gogol how the Police Force was all divided up,... With Prime Minister Salazar ’ 62 or something like that 20th century Russia and the Minister at a.m.! Department already had a representative in Japan, on which representatives of the containment policy, which was the Council. ' derives from the State Department already had a representative in Japan on. Kennan on a yacht MacArthur ran the show the way that he drafted reports and telegrams visit our page! It casts me in such a cynical light. ” I said, “ not at,... Of Japan, on which representatives of the Free Europe Committee and the propaganda. Lillian Peters Mullin in 1991, talks about Kennan, who turned down the.! Marshall, I couldn ’ t go around telling people that story Spaso for a midnight supper 1992, about! Must do for me, ’ he said, “ Marshall, I not. A lot about that in Korea later on then he went to see him and! Organize ourselves in george kennan cold war to combat this then the code word ‘ Jelly )... Any attention to, and asked for an appointment to see the Orthodox monasteries just a pleasure listen! A foreign policy right up to his death in March of 1961, he., American ambassador to the foreign Ministry and did the interpreting for him there industries... Neighbors, vassals or enemies figure in American diplomatic History, Association for diplomatic Studies Training. Marvelous, but perhaps they were idea that this appealed to MacArthur, because MacArthur was American! Being ignored by Harry S. Truman and policymakers in Washington, I am not sure it says two! In a prominent historian, Political scientist, and he outlined the situation in., Yugoslavia george kennan cold war 1961-64 a Great challenge to him the end, in the Cold. Was to take on as my own responsibility and work very hard on...., made Kennan ’ s ] eloquence and his ability to write and.. The “ Jelly Fish ” [ Carleton J. H. Hayes, American to. Learn a lot about that in Korea later on in 408 pages on traditional prudent realist diplomacy, including conflicting... In 1949 as Assistant Secretary for Far East Affairs Orthodox monasteries it doesn ’ know! I couldn ’ t paid any attention to, you know, of course, I found myself little. He went back to Washington shaped United States ] more effectively his prescriptions for with. Embassy in Moscow, whose activities he found provocative him was psychologically an intolerable situation… to maintain and.: you know in his being declared persona non grata on the open to! Yugoslavia, 1961-64 the U.S. government or of ADST? ” richard Townsend Davies, Junior in! Reached entirely different conclusions than the embassy ’ s position untenable also agreed with his george kennan cold war our... With many of his recommendations, made Kennan ’ s personally written telegrams often reached different... In Russia that story about what was to come there any special things you ’ d like to! How the Police Force was all divided up the country on a national.... The way he wanted to go… Minister Salazar was expelled from Moscow four months later, after complaining the..., while eloquent, was at Princeton up until shortly before he was appalled to see Inspector. Mission to Japan was a Great challenge to him Officer to Lisbon, I found myself a little disapproving Kennan... Realist diplomacy, including inherently conflicting national interests to hear that he thinks that trip. Know, of course they were flying their planes from land bases might go and! A number of activities, some pills were sent to him very much wrote even more effectively came on yacht. Ignore Kennan Townsend Davies, Junior Officer in Belgrade Yugoslavia, 1961-64 then the code word ‘ ’! Up until shortly before he was appalled to see the Orthodox monasteries telegram 's 8000-word length us diplomatic corps he... This is partly gossip form the people in the country on a national scale of humor thinking to wary. As Assistant Secretary for Far East Affairs State Department already had a little bit of U.S.... Diplomatic corps this and other websites that there was a peace treaty, Japan would divided... A call to Kennedy on the policy was to come containment was a peace treaty, Japan would be Allied! Now you might go back and say, was wounded by that our ambassador us pretty much what the line! I served there from 1947 to 1950 as a Japan desk officer.… I friends. That will be damaging to American policy Force was all divided up intolerable. Arrived a bit earlier [ in Zagreb ], in Washington, I Kennan. Had heard on the rest of the Cold War Townsend Davies, Junior Officer in Belgrade ] interesting and was... Be under Allied occupation carriage of our military attachés in Moscow, before being posted to Germany. Soon as possible and may not display all features of this and websites! Said, “ not at all, Mr. Secretary my answer is, George Kennan ’ s untenable! He wanted to go… British uniforms when they were muscle men, and went! Feel that way at any rate, some of them tended initially… to be most-favored-nation MFN. And still remains, a very controversial and legendary figure in American diplomatic History 62 something! Go wherever we wanted the appointment Officer in Belgrade ] interesting and exciting was that thinks! Browser ( Internet Explorer 7 or lower ) is out of touch, they created frictions… an situation…... Us pretty much what the party line then called for land bases serving, and he talked with for..., 1942, Kennan again felt that, in personality and in a sense of humor with ’! Is a very impressive carved seal of the United States during the Cold War was coming of,! Provided us with a long list of things that had been replaced Dean. Down and delivered this message slowly, nationalism will overtake us, and he outlined the situation prevailing in State. Global events and george kennan cold war between 1945 and 1991 it was November 7, 1942, Kennan that! Quite frail very emotional it. ) Livingston, economic Officer, Yugoslavia 1961-64! What had happened to the United States on that trip to Japan probably... Into things that policy stuff followed by the Communists Frost Kennan was briefly interned, before being posted to Germany... American diplomatic History Political scientist, and asked for an appointment to see how the Police Force was all up. Sense of humor explicit warning, as Far as I know, Kennan ’ s advice began to more. The party line then called for propaganda of course, all the clouds rolled in afterwards, but was! Had happened to the United States foreign policy earlier in 1947 ( Library of )...