By “W”
Michael Anton, reviewing the new Kennan biography, Kennan: a life between worlds, by Frank Costigliola
“If you know one thing about the late George Frost Kennan (1904–2005), it’s that he was the principal author of the ‘containment’ doctrine at the heart of America’s winning strategy in the Cold War. If you know two things, you probably know that he came to doubt and even repudiate and regret his own decisive contribution to America’s role in that struggle. If your knowledge extends to three or more things, you are almost certainly a priest in the national security clerisy, a professor of international relations, or a worshiper of those who erected the post-World War II international order—categories not exclusive.
“For a long time, I was in the first camp. Although in college I studied history (among other things), my focus was on the more distant past. Still, in reading biographies of 20th-century notables (as I liked to do), one inevitably comes across Kennan’s name. He seemed to me at the time to be a sort of middling figure: important enough to be mentioned and his one big contribution summarized and credited, but not sufficiently significant to merit his own full-scale treatment. After all, prominent as Kennan was for a while, he never made it into one of those really big-time jobs—senator, governor, cabinet secretary—held by those, including many of his peers, about whom biographies are written.
“Some years later, I found myself near the top—in terms of proximity, not seniority—of the national security bureaucracy. This was shortly before, and for nearly four years after, 9/11. At that time, there was a lot of talk about a new international system aborning, something much more fundamental than the ‘new world order’ George H.W. Bush had prophesied after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This would, it was hoped, be the most significant remaking of international relations since the (roughly) five-year period following the end of the Second World War. And those in charge of American foreign policy at that time (my bosses) would be the ones to make it all happen, thus ensconcing their names in the history books no less than…George Kennan’s….”
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-containment-of-george-kennan/
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4 comments:
All the people I know through history,I've never heard of George Kennan.And since we're in the shape we are now,I can say that he probably failed to exert any influence over history in the least.But his kids will be happy he was remembered.
Which brings up a good question.Who,in the United States,would anyone guess is the one person responsible for the condition our country is in today?
Bush,Obama,Clinton? This just didn't happen today,our mass insanity has been building for a couple decades.
--GRA
I've read a lot about the Cold War and have long been familiar with George Kennan. He was famous for forming the idea of containment of the Soviet Union post WW II. In later years he was considered something of a soft-liner.
Anton's review noted Kennan had little interest in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He wanted to end immigration. Kennan was "not enamored of blacks ('ineradicable bitterness and hatred of the whites')."
"he would also never give up his belief that coming to terms with the Soviets was both desirable and possible"
"Come to terms" to the extent that USA and the Soviets would not blow one another to bits.
"Bush, Obama, Clinton? This just didn't happen today, our mass insanity has been building for a couple decades."
NOT one of them but the whole kit and kaboodle. And the American public too in general for allowing the mess to develop for decades. Rot began decades ago really. A great malaise actually. To an extent Jimmy Carter was right, and sadly so.
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