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Cold War By George Kennedy: A Brief Summary

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This article written by George Kennedy is essentially a review of the United States Government's views on the Soviet situation. It introduces the idea of a policy of containment which ultimately was going to be the way America would battle the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
The article begins with Kennan outlining the Soviet's position after World War Two, primarily about their adoption of Marxist ideas into their own. Kennan thought that the Soviets saw no future in which capitalism and communism could exist peacefully together and have equal power. An autocratic power was introduced to put into action, policy that aligned with Marxism, but the Communist party in Russia was only small and so there was scepticism because of the economic issues it created. The system generated a want for total power, and the Soviets used the 'evilness' of capitalism as a reason to try to overthrow the world's major powers.
Kennan then discusses the unreliability of the Kremlin's foreign policy. He talks about how the soviet policy changes were tactical and a way of getting what they wanted, without technically breaking any rules. Kennan then said that because of this outlook, the Soviets were going to be difficult to deal with …show more content…

Direct conflict, post-World War Two, was undesirable, but there was an undercurrent of rivalry and competition which kept the Soviets alert of any place in the world where they might spread their influence. This leads to the introduction of the policy of containment. Kennan proposed that an effort should be made to contain soviet expansion in order to ensure protection of Western Europe and Japan, who both had indispensable military and industrial sources, from Soviet power. Kennan indicated that the policy of containment was going to be long term, firm and

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