George F. Kennan : an American life

by John Lewis Gaddis

  8 GFK to Grace Wells, October 17, 1938, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK Diary, October 23, 1938; GFK personal notes, October 1938, in GFK, From Prague After Munich, p. 4.

  9 GFK undated memoir, “Prague—Munich to Occupation, 1938–1939,” pp. 12–13, GFK Papers, 240:3; GFK to JKH, November 14, 1938, ibid., 23:10.

  10 GFK to JKH, November 14, 1938, ibid.; GFK undated memoir, “Prague—Munich to Occupation, 1938–1939,” pp. 12–16, ibid., 240:3.

  11 Ibid., pp. 16–19.

  12 ASK to JKH, December 10, 1938, and February 6, 1939, JEK Papers; GFK to JKH, December 28, 1938, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  13 GFK personal notes, October 1938, in GFK, From Prague After Munich, pp. 4–5.

  14 GFK personal letters of December 8, 1938, and January 6, 1939, in ibid., pp. 9, 11. See also Raymond E. Cox to State Department, January 12, 1939, and Wilbur J. Carr to State Department, February 1, 1939, both drafted by GFK, in ibid., pp. 29–31, 38–39.

  15 GFK to State Department, February 17, 1939, in ibid., pp. 46–50, 56.

  16 GFK personal notes, March 21, 1939, in ibid., pp. 80–87; GFK interview, September 7, 1983, p. 6; ASK to JKH, March 18, 1938, JEK Papers; GFK to JKH, March 24, 1939, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK undated memoir, “Prague—Munich to Occupation, 1938–1939,” p. 45, ibid., 240:3; ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 14.

  17 GFK to State Department, March 29 and 30, 1939, in GFK, From Prague After Munich, p. 94; GFK, “The Prerequisites,” pp. 4–5, GFK Papers, 240:4.

  18 Irving N. Linnell to chargé d’affaires in Berlin (drafted by GFK), April 14, 1939, and to Department of State (drafted by GFK), May 23, 1939, in GFK, From Prague After Munich, pp. 117–18, 178.

  19 GFK to State Department, March 29, 1939, Linnell to State Department (drafted by GFK), May 23, 1939, ibid., pp. 98, 173–74.

  20 GFK to State Department, May 1, 1939, in ibid., pp. 135–38.

  21 GFK to Robert Coe, March 30, 1939, GFK to State Department, April 26–27, 1939, Linnell to State Department (drafted by GFK), May 10, 1939, all in ibid., pp. 103–4, 133, 150.

  22 GFK to State Department, May 15, 1939, in ibid., pp. 169–71.

  23 Messersmith to GFK, June 27, 1939, GFK Papers, 140:10; GFK, Memoirs, I, 128.

  24 GFK, “The War Problem of the Soviet Union,” March 1935, GFK Papers, 250:1; Linnell to American chargé d’affaires in Berlin (drafted by GFK), in GFK, From Prague After Munich, pp. 88–91; Linnell to State Department (drafted by GFK), May 23 and June 6, 1939, ibid., pp. 177, 183. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 100–101. For the Herwarth affair, see Bohlen, Witness to History, pp. 67–87, and Herwarth and Starr, Against Two Evils, pp. 153–62.

  25 GFK to Messersmith, April 7, 1939, GFK Papers, 250:4; GFK to Jay Pierrepont Moffatt, May 10, 1939, ibid., 140:10.

  26 GFK Diary, June 8–14, 1939. See also GFK, Sketches from a Life, pp. 57–58.

  27 Linnell to State Department (drafted by GFK), August 19, 1939, in GFK, From Prague After Munich, p. 217; ASK to JKH, July 10, 1939 and to CKB, September 5, 1939, JEK Papers; GFK to JKH, September 16, 1939, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  28 GFK, Memoirs, I, 105.

  29 ASK to JKH, October 24, 1939, JEK Papers; GFK, Memoirs, I, 107–8; GFK to JKH, November 14, 1939, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  30 Ibid.; ASK to JKH, February 18, 1940, JEK Papers.

  31 GFK to JKH, November 14 and December 9, 1939, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  32 GFK to JKH, December 31, 1939, ibid.

  33 GFK, Memoirs, I, 115–16; GFK Diary, February 24, and March 4, 1940; GFK to JKH, April 15, 1940, ibid., 23:10. For the Welles mission, see Gellman, Secret Affairs, pp. 166–202.

  34 GFK untitled paper, February, 1940, GFK Papers, 240:5, GFK Diary, February 24 and 26, 1940. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 116–19.

  35 GFK to JKH, February 13 and March 7, 1940, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  36 GFK to JKH, April 15, 1940, ibid.; ASK interviews, August 26, 1982, p. 9, and December 14, 1987, p. 22.

  37 Ibid.; GFK Diary, May 4, 1940. GFK dates the departure incorrectly in his Memoirs, I, 123–24.

  38 GFK Diary, May 6, 8, 10, 14, 17, 1940.

  39 Ibid., June 10, 1940.

  40 Ibid., June 14, 15, 16, 1940. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 124–27; and GFK, Sketches from a Life, pp. 66–68.

  41 GFK Diary, July 2, 3, 1940; also GFK, Sketches from a Life, pp. 70–74.

  42 GFK Diary, August 26–September 6, 1940; GFK to JKH, November 5, 1940, GFK Papers, 23:10; Masarik, Le dernier témoin de Munich, pp. 417–18. I am indebted to my Yale student Rene Bystron for this reference.

  43 GFK report, “A Year and a Half of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia,” October 1940, in GFK, From Prague After Munich, pp. 226–40.

  44 GFK, Memoirs, I, 119–23; GFK to G. van Roon, March 14, 1962, GFK Papers, 56; GFK interview, August 25, 1982, p. 8; Herwarth and Starr, Against Two Evils, pp. 177–78.

  45 GFK to Jacob D. Beam, October 17 and November 8, 1940, GFK Papers, 140:9. See also Miner, “His Master’s Voice,” in Craig and Loewenheim, Diplomats, p. 78.

  46 GFK to JKH, October 21, 1940, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  47 ASK interview, August 26, 1982, pp. 9–10; “Kennan Kept Busy in Berlin,” Milwaukee Journal, February 6, 1941.

  48 ASK to JKH, March 23, April 13, and June 5, 1941, JEK Papers; JKH interview, p. 19. The travel dates are from GFK’s personnel file, DSR-DF 1940–44, 123K36/338, 342, and 345, but see also GFK to JKH, May 4, 1941, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  49 ASK to JKH, April 13 and June 5, 1941, JEK Papers. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 124.

  50 ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 23; GFK interview, August 25, 1982, p. 6; JLG diary, December 14, 1987.

  51 JKH to JLG, August 12, 1983; GFK to JKH, August 6 and September 5, 1941, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  52 GFK to JKH, August 17, September 5, and October 29, 1941, ibid., 23:10. For the island, see ASK to JKH, May 31, 1935, JEK Papers; ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 26.

  53 Vassiltchikov, Berlin Diaries, p. 53; GFK, Memoirs, I, 130–34. For American warnings to the Soviet Union, see Heinrichs, Threshold of War, pp. 21–23, 56.

  54 MacLean, Joseph E. Davies, pp. 71–79. See also Davies, Mission to Moscow. Davies had stepped down as ambassador in June 1938.

  55 GFK interview, September 7, 1983, p. 9; GFK to ASK, October 21, 1941, in GFK, Sketches from a Life, p. 75.

  56 GFK interview, September 7, 1983, p. 9.

  57 GFK, Memoirs, I, 134.

  58 GFK to James W. Riddleberger, November 20, 1941, GFK Papers, 140:8.

  59 GFK interviews, August 25, 1982, p. 16, and December 13, 1987, p. 17; GFK to Bullitt, June 9, 1936, Bullitt Papers, T12:21.

  60 See GFK, Memoirs, I, 109–12; GFK, Sketches from a Life, pp. 59–63.

  61 GFK interview, September 7, 1983, p. 3.

  62 ASK to JKH, March 18, 1938, JEK Papers.

  63 Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, pp. 479–81.

  EIGHT ● THE UNITED STATES AT WAR: 1941–1944

  1 GFK to JKH, October 29, 1941, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  2 GFK, Memoirs, I, 134–36; Burdick, American Island in Hitler’s Reich, pp. 8–11, 34–43; and GFK, “Report, the Internment and Repatriation of the American Official Group in Germany, 1941–1942,” pp. 422–26, 456–59.

  3 GFK interview, December 13, 1987, p. 1. See also Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, p. xi.

  4 Burdick, American Island in Hitler’s Reich, p. 43. The information on luggage and pets comes from the internees’ newspaper, Bad Nauheim Pudding, February 14, 1942, copy in GFK Papers, 231:9.

  5 Burdick, American Island in Hitler’s Reich, pp. 35–36, 39–40, 70–72.

  6 List of activities, January 25–29, 1942, GFK Papers, 231:9; Stephen Turnham, “WWII Slugger Earns a Footnote in Baseball History,” Washington Post, April 11, 1991.

  7 “To Whom It May Concern” letter signed by P. W. Whitcomb, Louis P. Lochner, J. P. Dickson, and S. W. Herman, Jr., February 26, 1942, GFK Papers, 231:9. The lecture notes are in ibid., 298:3–8.

&nb
sp; 8 Untitled, undated lecture notes, ibid.

  9 GFK to “my dear children,” February 1942, ibid., 140:7. For more on this letter, see Chapter One.

  10 GFK interview, December 13, 1987, p. 15; typescript marked “Unfinished Story,” no date but probably late March or early April 1942.

  11 GFK Diary, April 19–22, 1942.

  12 Ibid., May 5, 1942.

  13 GFK, Memoirs, I, 139; GFK interview, December 13, 1987, pp. 16, 19.

  14 GFK, Memoirs, I, 138; Burdick, American Island in Hitler’s Reich, pp. 106–8.

  15 ASK to Frieda Por, undated but December 1941, JEK Papers; ASK interview, August 26, 1982, p. 11. GFK’s query, conveyed through the Swiss, is in the DSR-DF 1940–44, 123K36/368.

  16 Frieda Por to State Department, ibid., “123Kennan George F.” folder; G. Howland Shaw to GFK, June 12, 1942, ibid., 123K36/371.

  17 Bad Nauheim Lecture 2, undated, GFK Papers, 298:5; GFK Diary, April 20, 1942.

  18 ASK interviews, August 26, 1982, p. 11, and December 14, 1987, p. 27; GFK to JKH, June 12 and 21, 1942, JEK Papers. The book was M. G. Gains, Five Acres and Independence: A Practical Guide to the Selection and Management of the Small Farm (New York: Greenberg, 1940).

  19 ASK to JKH, two undated letters, JEK Papers; ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 29.

  20 Ibid., pp, 29–30; GFK to JKH, July 21 and 22, 1942, JEK Papers.

  21 “A Diplomat Moves Into the Joe Miller Place,” York [Pennsylvania] Dispatch, June 13, 1964. Jeanette Hotchkiss and Kent Kennan both brought this story to my attention.

  22 GFK Diary, September 8, 1942, ASK to JKH, September 30, 1942, JEK Papers.

  23 GFK Diary, August 28, 1942.

  24 GFK to JKH, December 1 and 2 [misdated], 1942, and January 31, 1943, GFK Papers, 23:10; ASK to JKH, November 14 and December 10, 1942, February 12, 1943, JEK Papers.

  25 Blair Butterworth, “Fond Family Memories of an Extraordinary Man,” Seattle Times, March 22, 2005. I am indebted to Blair Butterworth for sharing this story with me. See also “Clipper Crashes at Lisbon,” New York Times, February 23, 1943.

  26 GFK, Memoirs, I, 143; Robert Meiklejohn Diary, December 23, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 11; Roberts interview, March 15, 1993, p. 2.

  27 GFK, Memoirs, I, 143–45. See also GFK’s National War College lecture, “Problems of Diplomatic-Military Collaboration,” March 7, 1947, p. 7, GFK Papers, 298:29.

  28 Ibid., pp. 4–6.

  29 GFK to JKH, April 30, July 2, and 20, 1943, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  30 GFK to JKH, undated letter composed “at sea,” ibid., 23:10. The Gibbon quote is from Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, I, 30. For the Davies film, see MacLean, Joseph E. Davies, pp. 91–93, 106–7.

  31 GFK to JKH, August 14, 1942, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  32 Ibid.; GFK to Dunn, September 9, 1943, Dunn to GFK, October 1, 1943, DSR-DF 1940–44, 711.53/31.

  33 GFK, Memoirs, I, 147–50; GFK National War College lecture, March 7, 1947, pp. 9–13. See also the partial documentation in FRUS: 1943, II, 547–50.

  34 State Department to GFK, October 16, 1943, GFK to State Department, October 18, 1943, ibid., pp. 554–57. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 150–53.

  35 Ibid., pp. 153–55, 163; also FRUS: 1943, II, 557–62.

  36 GFK, Memoirs, I, 156–59.

  37 Roosevelt to Salazar, November 4, 1943, in FRUS: 1943, II, 564–65. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 159–62. For Leahy’s presence on the Drottningholm, see Burdick, American Island in Hitler’s Reich, p. 107.

  38 GFK National War College lecture, March 7, 1947, Harlow and Maerz, eds., Measures Short of War, p. 151; GFK, Memoirs, I, 162–63.

  39 Hull to Norweb and GFK, December 4, 1943, in FRUS: 1943, II, 576; GFK, Memoirs, I, 166; Roberts interview, p. 4. See also Bohlen interview by Wright, p. 4.

  40 GFK, Memoirs, I, 164–66. See also, for background on the EAC, Gaddis, United States and the Origins of the Cold War, pp. 105–9.

  41 GFK, Memoirs, I, 167–69.

  42 Ibid., pp. 168–70.

  43 GFK to Bullitt, April 4, 1944, Bullitt Papers, 30:15; GFK, Memoirs, I, 171–74. See also the documentation in FRUS: 1944, I, 207–9. The map containing the JCS proposal is in ibid., facing p. 196.

  44 Quoted in GFK handwritten memorandum, no date but probably March 1944, GFK Papers, Box 1R, “1944” folder. The Gibbon reference is from Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, II, 373. Kennan’s airplane reading is confirmed in GFK to JLG, October 18, 1995, JLG Papers.

  45 GFK handwritten memorandum, probably March 1944, GFK Papers, 231:12.

  46 Ibid.; GFK paper on “The Treatment of Germany,” enclosed in GFK to Bullitt, April 4, 1944, Bullitt Papers, 30:15; GFK to James W. Riddleberger, June 13, 1944, GFK Papers, 140:6. This memorandum is cited incorrectly in GFK, Memoirs, I, 175–78, as dating from 1943.

  47 GFK interview, August 25, 1982, pp. 11–12; Bohlen interview by Wright.

  48 JEK unpublished memoir, JLG Papers; ASK to GFK, December 24, 1943, DSR-DF 1940–44, 123K/463.

  49 Winant to State Department, January 17, 1944, ibid., 123K36/471; S. C. Jalecki memorandum, March 30, 1944, ibid., “123Kennan, George F.” folder; GFK, Memoirs, I, 171.

  50 GFK to Bullitt, April 23, 1944, Bullitt Papers, 30:12; GFK to Eugene Hotchkiss, April 18, 1944, GFK Papers, 140:6; GFK to ASK, April 4 and 24, 1944, DSR-DF 1940–44, 123K36/489 and 495. For the speculation about GFK’s ulcer, see Cumming interview, p. 2.

  51 GFK to Follmer, May 14, 1944, GFK Papers, 140:6.

  NINE ● BACK IN THE U.S.S.R.: 1944–1945

  1 GFK to Eugene Hotchkiss, April 18, 1944, GFK Papers, 140:6; G. Howland Shaw to GFK, May 22, 1944, DSR-DF 1940–44, Box 474, 123K36/507.

  2 The fullest biography of Harriman is Abramson, Spanning the Century; but see also Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy. The first Kennan’s biography is E. H. Harriman: A Biography.

  3 Harriman interview, September 24, 1982, p. 1. See also Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy, p. 229n; and Bohlen, Witness to History, pp. 132–33, as well as the extensive correspondence regarding Kennan’s Moscow assignment in his State Department personnel file, DSR-DF 1940–44, 123K36/470–81.

  4 GFK, Memoirs, I, 180–81, 233–34, GFK to Thomas A. Julian, March 31, 1965, GFK Papers, 58:4–8; Harriman interview, pp. 1–3; GFK interview, August 25, 1982, p. 10.

  5 GFK remarks to the officer staff of the American legation in Lisbon, June 1944 [specific date not given], GFK Papers, 298:9.

  6 GFK Diary, June 15, 1944; ASK to GFK, June 25, 1944, JEK Papers. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 181.

  7 Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, III, 49. The Belisarius account is in ibid., II, 559–61.

  8 GFK Diary, June 15–18, 1944; GFK to ASK, June 21, 1944, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  9 GFK, Memoirs, I, 181–85.

  10 GFK Diary, June 23–25, 1944; Henderson interview, pp. 4–6.

  11 GFK Diary, July 1, 1944.

  12 Ibid., July 31, 1944; GFK memorandum, “Russia—Seven Years After,” September 1944, in GFK, Memoirs, I, 504, 522.

  13 “Post Report, American Embassy, Moscow, U.S.S.R.,” July 11, 1944, Department of State, Record Group 84, Moscow 1944, Box 30, “124—Post Report.” See also Abramson, Spanning the Century, pp. 351–52.

  14 GFK to JKH, October 8 and November 18, 1944, GFK Papers, 23:10; ASK interview, September 8, 1983, p. 3; GFK and ASK interview, December 13, 1995, pp. 8–9; JEK to JLG, April 7, 2008, JLG Papers.

  15 ASK to JKH, October 6, 12, and November 24, 1944, JEK Papers; John and Patricia Davies interview, December 7, 1982, p. 3.

  16 Hessman interview, September 24, 1982, p. 2; Mautner interview, September 24, 1983, p. 1; and John and Patricia Davies interview, December 7, 1982, pp. 4–5. See also Roberts interview, pp. 5–6, and Roberts, Dealing with Dictators, p. 94.

  17 ASK to JKH, November 24, 1944, JEK Papers. See also Newman, Cold War Romance of Lillian Hellman and John Melby, especially pp. 21, 33–34. Hellman’s own account is in her Unfinished Woman, pp. 125–65.


  18 John Hersey to Frances Ann Hersey, December 25, 1944, Hersey Papers, Box 7. I am indebted to my Yale student Kimberly Chow for finding this letter.

  19 GFK to JKH, October 8, 1944, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  20 Kathleen Harriman to Mary Harriman, July 3, 1944, Harriman Papers, Box 173; GFK Diary, July 2, 1944; S. K. Tsarapkin to Molotov, July 7, 1944, Russian Federation Foreign Policy Archive, Molotov Fond, Opis 6, Papka 46, Delo 610, L 46; Meiklejohn Diary, July 3, 1944, Harriman Papers, Box 11.

  21 GFK memorandum, “Comments on the Polish-Russian Question,” July 3, 1944, Department of State, Record Group 84, Moscow 1944, Box 39, “711–Poland” folder.

  22 Harriman handwritten notes, July 3, 1944, Harriman Papers, Box 173. Roberts, Stalin’s Wars, pp. 31–117, provides a recent—if charitable—assessment of Stalin’s intentions. For the importance of the Atlantic Charter, see Gaddis, United States and the Origins of the Cold War, pp. 1–31.

  23 Abramson, Spanning the Century, pp. 361–63; GFK, Memoirs, I, 207–8. The Soviet government finally admitted its responsibility for the Katyn murders in 1990.

  24 Harriman handwritten notes, July 3, 1944. Harriman Papers, Box 173; Edward Page memorandum, Harriman-Molotov conversation, June 3, 1944, Department of State, Record Group 84, Moscow 1944, Box 39, “711—Poland” folder.

  25 GFK to Harriman, undated but late July 1944, Harriman Papers, Box 173, “July 26–31, 1944” folder; GFK Diary, July 27 and August 1, 1944.

  26 GFK diary, August 6, 1944; Harriman to Roosevelt, two cables, August 15, 1944, in FRUS: 1944, III, 1374–77; GFK, Memoirs, I, 210–11. Kennan erroneously recalls Harriman and Clark Kerr as having been received on this occasion by Stalin himself.

  27 Ibid., p. 211; GFK interview, September 7, 1983, p. 18.

  28 GFK to Harriman, September 18, 1944, GFK Papers, 140:6. GFK misdates this memorandum as December 16, 1944, in his Memoirs, I, 222.

  29 GFK to Harriman, October 3, 1944, with Harriman annotation, Harriman Papers, Box 174; GFK interview, August 25, 1982, p. 19; Berlin interview, November 29, 1992, p. 1; Harriman to JLG, September 23, 1982, JLG Papers; Harriman interview, p. 5.