Vincent Chiarello's encounter with George F. Kennan

By An Old Friend

friday, June 16, 2023 at 11:37:47 p.m. edt

Vincent Chiarello's encounter with George F. Kennan

Several of us on this list know "Don Vincenzo."  Interestingly, he was a good friend of (the late) Justice Antonin Scalia.  

And Vincent has had an interesting life beyond that, teaching history in NYC high schools, then being a Foreign Service officer in a range of postings.  Long retired (he's about 85), years ago he sent a memorable note to Larry Auster that was posted at Larry's View From the Right blogsite.  The note, which was about legendary U.S. diplomat George Kennan, made a big impression on me when it first appeared.

Now Vincent has essentially recycled that brief, long-ago note in a letter to the Claremont Review of Books, responding to an article in the Winter issue about Kennan by Michael Anton.  Don Vincenzo's letter appears in the just-arrived Spring issue.  Here goes:

Kennan the Prophet

Reading Michael Anton's "The Containment of George Kennan" (Winter 2022/23), I was reminded of a time in 1985, while serving as press attaché in U.S. Embassy Oslo, when I received an invitation to attend a luncheon at which Kennan was the guest of honor. If memory serves, this was the first time he had ever accepted an embassy invitation. I had read most of his work on U.S. foreign policy and knew of his near-iconic standing amongst many members of the U.S. Foreign Service. I was asked to take the lead in keeping up the conversation.

Foreign policy issues dominated the discussion, including NATO's deterrence capability and the dangers posed by undetectable Soviet submarines in the Kola Peninsula. The guests included representatives of the Norwegian government, who were pleased—at least they appeared to be—with Kennan's talk. That night, the ambassador called and asked if I would be interested in a one-on-one conversation with Kennan over breakfast the next morning, as the ambassador himself had an appointment that could not be broken. I eagerly accepted.

Unlike the previous day, foreign policy issues occupied only a brief part of our lengthy conversation. What remains most vividly was Kennan's pessimism about the future of the United States. Time and time again he returned to the same theme: immigration from non-European nations would be a disaster and the thin line that separated the U.S. from the rest of the world would disappear. Kennan emphasized that mindset by repeatedly pointing out our cultural heritage as the sine qua non of our exceptionalism. Toward the end of the session, he repeated that the flood of unassimilable strangers, not the Soviet threat, would shake the nation to its very core. Kennan believed the country in which he had been raised and which he had served was slowly but surely disappearing. Given the current state of the nation, his words can only be described as prophetic.

Vincent Chiarello

Reston, VA

It's also worth reading his somewhat-longer original, from January 2009:   http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/012282.html