George Kennan The Cold War Analysis

George Kennan's containment plan is a radical shift in the U.S foreign policy when the Policy of the United States towards the Soviet Union prior, and during the World War II is considered. The containment policy marks the shift of American foreign policy towards the Soviets from alliance to deterrence. Kennan's states in the Long Telegram, "USSR still lives in antagonistic "capitalist encirclement" with which in the long run there can be no permanent peaceful coexistence." (Citation needed) only two years after the end of World War II, a war both the U.S and the Soviet Union fought side by side for a common ambition. If the aspect of radical shift in the U.S foreign policy is seen from a post-Cold War perspective, another radical change can

When one can truly understand and uncover the meaning behind these articles and how they fit into one or more of the ‘boxes’ we call paradigms and perspectives. In order to dissect and analyze the case of the Cold War, especially its origins, one must not only skim through the text and uncover main ideas, but also must also relate the readings to these paradigms and establish one’s own ideals and opinions regarding the study of international relations. Personally, I believe the articles associated with the origins of the Cold War along with Professor Katzenstein’s lecture on the topic provide strong arguments for the use of a ‘middle fish’ perspective and a ‘big fish’ paradigm: domestic politics and realism, respectively. Through George Kennan’s personal accounts, experience and analysis at both the time of the Cold War’s inception and forty-plus years later after the fall of the Soviet Union, a point is made regarding the nature of Soviet expansion as an offensive maneuver, which he believed must be contained by a defensive strategy. This point of conflicting strategies by the U.S. and (especially) the Soviet Union provides the reader with a realist argument and perspective. Also, in his second piece, which details remarks made to the Council on Foreign Relations in 1994, Kennan explains that instead of whole-heartedly adopting

In 1961 President John F Kennedy put together a doctrine, which altered from President Eisenhower’s one. It was to “Respond flexibly to communist expansion, especially guerrilla warfare.” (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 58) It was a time when the Cold War was at its height and nuclear weapons a mass threat and source of power. This doctrine was aimed at using alternative means before opening into combat. This, in light of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, it succeeded in doing.

George F. Kennan was an ambassador to the Soviet Union and sent an eight-thousand-word telegram to President Truman explaining the intentions of the Russians. This telegram was called the “Long Telegram”. He felt like he was isolated from the Washington while in Moscow. His intuition told him that things were bad under Stalin’s leadership and hated Germany because of it. “I HATE THE GERMANS”. HE did not think that the united states had what it took to get take care of things once and for all.

Skilt took a deep breath, pulled back the arrow in his bow, aimed, and prayed to the great spirit that he would hit his target as he released his breath, and the arrow.

Winston Churchill indignantly bolstered the American public with a phrase that would be remembered for many years to come: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” This line was what Americans labeled as the start of containment, the start of a new era, especially that of the war on communism later entitled the “Cold War.” However, it was not just this flimsy line that buttressed the supporters of democracy; the true motivator of containment was rather the “Long Telegram,” an eight-thousand-word telegram sent by American ambassador to the Soviet Union, George F. Kennan, to the White House. Albeit inspirational, the “Iron Curtain” speech failed miserably to do the one thing that the “Long Telegram” did: set the policy of containment in place with a purely American ideology. With this telegram, the United States started its trek dedicated to remaining the second world power of the time by reducing the Soviet Union’s power as to not constitute a constant communist threat, changing the rules of international conduct so the Soviet Union would not dominate the globe, and eventually fostering a world environment in which an American system could survive and flourish.

Since the beginning of the Cold War in the late 1940s, American national strategy has been dedicated to the containment of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics (Soviet Union) and its soviet-inspired communism. Following the end of World War II, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States were strained. The distinct differences in the political systems between these two countries facilitated animosity and mistrust, often to the brink of war. The Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, spread communism throughout Eurasia in an attempt to establish Soviet hegemony and secure his power domestically. President Harry S. Truman embraced the framework of George F. Kennan’s controversial containment policy to limit the Soviet’s influence, often at the expense of the United States.

George Kennan, who was a well-known Foreign Service officer, Political Scientists, Historian, and the maker and advocate of Policy of Containment, in the 1940’s strongly presented his views on how to deal with U.S. policy toward the spread of communism and the Soviet Union. While Kennan was one of the first to build a U.S. embassy in Russia, and had respect for Russian people, he increasingly became harsh towards the appraisal of the communist leader, Vladimir Lenin. His Policy of Containment was a way to stop the spread of Communism, and coincided with Kennan’s views that the Soviet Union could not have any peacefully cooperate with the western views of a democratic and capitalist society. Kennan knew the Soviet Union feared any resistance

The Cold War era was an infamous time in United States history. The stand-off between the USSR and the US lasted nearly forty-five years, and began shortly after World War II had ended. Even though the USSR and the US had been Allied Powers during the war, Stalin’s ruling of his country frightened the United States, and the US’s late entry in the war caused Russian resentment. The tension the Cold War caused terrified everyone and pressured the United States government to start preparing for desperate measures. The US began mass-producing nuclear bombs, increasing production four times over, and even started working to create the first fusion hydrogen bomb (History, 2009). It the stress of the Cold War that caused Rocky Flats to be constructed. Rocky Flats was a plutonium processing plant in Colorado, just 26km north-west of Denver (Coates, 2014). During its life it manufactured fission cores that were to be used to detonate hydrogen bombs. The science they used to construct the fission cores utilized the discoveries made during WWII. However after the FBI’s raid in 1989, it was quickly shut down for good. Although the site has received a massive cleanup from the government and community, its impact on Colorado can still be seen today.

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

George F. Kennan served as an American diplomat with a background in history and political scientist. He was an influential member of the United States State Department during the Truman Administration and under Secretary of State George C. Marshall (George 2014). Kennan wrote an article titles The Sources of Soviet Conduct in which he highlights policies of the Soviet Union as well as the opinionated response of the United States. He strongly vindicates soviet policy as secretive and suspicious, and that a relationship with this nation should be watched with an ever-careful eye (Kennan 2017, 549). The Soviet Union and the principles of communism believe that capitalism is evil, and in their terms “can lead to the exploitation of the working class by capital-owning classes”, (Kennan 2017, 547). Within the article, Kennan explicitly attacks the aggressive expansionist soviet regime. He warns that the soviets adhere to the notion that they have a duty to eventually overthrow or topple other political forces or regimes beyond their indicated borders. The soviets also felt that to keep these policies in check, the system of centralized government must be held in the clenches of a dictator, or totalitarian figure (Kennan 2017, 548). Kennan drew out plans for the United States that would eventually be known as the “containment” policy. He proposed that foreign policy initiatives should pressure the Soviet Union. The policy must focus on a long-term, vigilant containment of Russian

George Kennan was the chief architect of the containment strategy in the administration of Harry Truman, particularly as the head of the Policy Planning Staff of the State Department in 1946-49, and his policies remained in place until the end of the Cold War in 1991. Indeed, they remained in place long after he thought their usefulness had expired, since he thought that after the death of Stalin and the stalemate in Korea the Soviets were eager for détente with the West which would enable them to concentrate more on their massive internal problems. He opposed the global containment ideas of Paul Nitze in National Security Council Memorandum 68 (1950) as a hysterical overreaction, and thought that global containment was a serious strategic error, especially in peripheral regions like Indochina. The roots of the containment doctrine dated back to the Long Telegram he sent from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in 1946. Although he did not make any detailed policy recommendations, he made it clear that he did not regard the Soviet Union as the same type of threat as Nazi Germany. Unlike Hitler, Stalin's aggression and expansion were unplanned and opportunistic, and its leaders did not wish to risk a general war with the West. For this reasons, the Soviets were highly sensitive to the "logic of force" and would retreat if confronted with resolution (Kennan 1946).

The orthodox view of the Cold War elucidates its inevitability due to the great ideological differences that existed between the Soviet Union and United States. On the other hand, the revisionists argued that it happened due to the actions that Soviets took and the consequential responses made by the United States as a result of their inflexible, single-sided interpretations of Soviet action. Yet, even with the backdrop of the early Bolshevik conflict in 1918 as well

“The Cold War is the name given to the relationship that developed primarily between the USA and the USSR after World War 2” (The Cold War). The Yalta Conference was a meeting of the three heads of the government, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. At the Conference, the three made various important decisions regarding the post- war future. They decided to make a new global peacemaking organization, the United Nations. Also, Roosevelt and Churchill discussed with Stalin the circumstances the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan. They all decided that instead of Soviet’s contribution to the Pacific theater, the Soviets would be granted some authority in Manchuria following Japan's waive. This arrangement was the main decision of the Yalta Conference.

“The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in 1947 by George F. Kennan, the article impacted and created a different perspective on the spread of Communism and the Soviet Union. Kennan’s philosophy behind stopping Communism from spreading was through containment, even though the telegraph did not have the word containment in it. The Truman Doctrine was established and the number of Presidents that viewed war in foreign soil. Kennan continued to fight Communism and had inputs and theories on other conflicts to include Vietnam and Korea.