George F. Kennan : an American life

by John Lewis Gaddis

  TWELVE ● MR. X: 1947

  1 GFK interview, December 13, 1987. Kennan probably had in mind Butterfield’s The Whig Interpretation of History.

  2 Kissinger, White House Years, p. 135.

  3 GFK, Memoirs, I, 367;GFK, “Failure in Our Success,” New York Times, March 14, 1994; JLG Diary, February 15, 1994, JLG Papers.

  4 Council on Foreign Relations Discussion Meeting Report, “The Soviet Way of Thought and Its Effect on Soviet Foreign Policy,” January 7, 1947, GFK Papers, 298:21. For background on the Council during this period, see Wala, Council on Foreign Relations.

  5 Wasson to GFK, January 8, 1947, Armstrong to GFK, January 10, 1947, GFK to Armstrong, February 4, 1947, Armstrong to GFK, March 7, 1947, all in GFK Papers, 140:3.

  6 Byrnes to GFK, January 6, 1947, GFK to Byrnes, January 8, 1947, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder. See also Messer, End of an Alliance, pp. 195–216.

  7 Pogue, George C. Marshall, p. 150; GFK, Memoirs, I, 354; Smith to Marshall, January 15, 1947, quoted in Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, p. 10; Bohlen interview by Wright. See also GFK interview by Pogue, February 17, 1959, p. 2.

  8 Ibid., pp. 2–4; Acheson, Present at the Creation, p. 214; GFK, Memoirs, I, 313.

  9 Henderson interview, p. 7; Balfour to Nevile Butler, January 31, 1947, British Foreign Office Records, FO 371/61045/AN633, National Archives, London.

  10 Acheson, Present at the Creation, p. 151. For Acheson’s shift on policy toward the Soviet Union, see Beisner, Dean Acheson, pp. 28–47.

  11 Acheson, Present at the Creation, pp. 217–18; GFK, Memoirs, I, 313. See also F. B. A. Rundall minute, March 10, 1947, British Foreign Office Records, FO 371/61053/AN906.

  12 GFK, Memoirs, I, 314. See also Acheson, Present at the Creation, pp. 217–18, and, for the minutes of the February 24, 1947, meeting, in FRUS: 1947, V, 45–47.

  13 Acheson, Present at the Creation, p. 219. See also Beisner, Dean Acheson, pp. 56–57; and Jones, Fifteen Weeks, p. 141.

  14 SWNCC-FPI 30, “Informational Objectives and Main Themes,” undated but approved by SWNCC on March 3, 1947, in FRUS: 1947, V, 76; GFK, Memoirs, I, 315; Jones, Fifteen Weeks, pp. 154–55; Francis H. Russell, “Memorandum on Genesis of President Truman’s March 12 Speech,” March 17, 1947, in FRUS: 1947, V, 123; Henderson interview by McKinzie, June 14, 1973, p. 88.

  15 Lilienthal Diary, March 9, 1947, in Lilienthal, Journals of Lilienthal, II, 158–59.

  16 Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S. Truman, 1947, pp. 178–79; GFK, Memoirs, I, 315.

  17 GFK National War College lecture, “National Security Problem,” March 14, 1947, GFK Papers, 298:30.

  18 Acheson executive session testimony, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, March 13, 1947, U.S. Congress, Senate, Legislative Origins of the Truman Doctrine, p. 22; GFK, Memoirs, I, 322–23.

  19 Rusk interview, December 9, 1982, p. 3; Machiavelli, Prince, p. 22.

  20 Acheson to Hill, March 7, 1947, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder; GFK National War College lecture, “Problems of Diplomatic-Military Collaboration,” March 7, 1947, GFK Papers, 298:29.

  21 GFK to John Osborne, July 31, 1962, GFK Papers, 56:5–7.

  22 GFK, Memoirs, I, 354–55; Forrestal to GFK, February 17, 1947, GFK Papers, 251:7. Kennan did send Admiral Hill a detailed analysis of the Willett paper on October 7, 1946, GFK Papers, 140:4. See also Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, p. 31n, and Millis, Forrestal Diaries, pp. 127–28; and Hoopes and Brinkley, Driven Patriot, pp. 273–76.

  23 GFK to John T. Connor, March 10, 1947, GFK Papers, 140:3; Marx Leva to GFK, March 12, 1947, ibid.; E. Eilder Spaulding to GFK, April 8, 1947, ibid.; GFK to Byron Dexter, April 11, 1947, ibid. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 354–55.

  24 GFK paper, “Psychological Background of Soviet Foreign Policy,” January 31, 1947, GFK Papers, 251:5.

  25 Armstrong to GFK, May 15, 1947, ibid., 140:3.

  26 GFK, Memoirs, I, 355.

  27 David Mayers suggests this in George Kennan and the Dilemmas of U.S. Foreign Policy, p. 113.

  28 GFK to Waldemar J. Gallman, March 14, 1947, and Norris B. Chipman, March 18, 1947, GFK Papers, 140:3.

  29 GFK National War College lecture, “Comments on the National Security Problem,” March 28, 1947, GFK Papers, 298:31.

  30 Bohlen, Witness to History, pp. 262–63; Pogue, George C. Marshall, pp. 189–90; GFK interview by Pogue, p. 6; GFK interview by Price, p. 1; GFK, Memoirs, I, 325–26.

  31 For background on the Marshall Plan, see Cohrs, Unfinished Peace After World War I; Hogan, Marshall Plan; and Behrman, Most Noble Adventure.

  32 Pogue, George C. Marshall, pp. 194–96; Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 46–48; Behrman, Most Noble Adventure, pp. 53–62. See also Charles P. Kindleberger’s memorandum, “Origins of the Marshall Plan,” July 22, 1948, in FRUS: 1947, III, 242.

  33 Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 38–39; Nitze, Smith, and Rearden, From Hiroshima to Glasnost, pp. 50–51; James Reston, “New Role for the State Department,” New York Times Magazine, May 25, 1947.

  34 GFK to Charles James, May 8, 1947, Douglas James Papers.

  35 Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 37–39, 48–49, 70; GFK, Memoirs, I, 307, 326.

  36 PPS/1, “Policy With Respect to American Aid to Western Europe,” May 23, 1947, in FRUS: 1947, III, 223–30. Charles P. Kindleberger confirms Kennan’s insistence on the Europeans taking the initiative in a retrospective memorandum, “Origins of the Marshall Plan,” ibid., p. 244. For Kennan’s May 6 National War College lecture, see Harlow and Maerz, Measures Short of War, p. 186. Marshall’s reservations about the Truman Doctrine are mentioned in Bohlen, Witness to History, p. 261.

  37 Acheson, Present at the Creation, pp. 231–34; Pogue, George C. Marshall, pp. 208–10; GFK interview by Pogue, pp. 8–9; GFK interview by Price, February 19, 1953, p. 2. Kennan misdates the meeting as May 24 in his Memoirs, I, 342.

  38 Pogue, George C. Marshall, p. 214; Behrman, Most Noble Adventure, pp. 71–90.

  39 GFK notes for conversation with Marshall, July 21, 1947, in FRUS: 1947, III, 335.

  40 Marshall interview by Price, February 18, 1953, quoted in Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, p. 51; GFK, Memoirs, I, 344–45.

  41 Balfour to Foreign Office, May 15, 1947, British Foreign Office Records, FO371/61047/AN1795.

  42 Joseph Alsop and Stewart Alsop, “Kennan Dispatch,” Washington Post, May 23, 1947;GFK to Acheson, May 23, 1947, GFK Papers, 140:3.

  43 Neal Stanford, “Planning Staff for Foreign Policy” Christian Science Monitor, May 26, 1947; “Foreign Policy Planner,” United States News, May 23, 1947, pp. 61–62; Paul W. Ward, “Diplomats, Historians in New ‘Brain Trust,” Baltimore Sun, June 8, 1947; Ferdinand Kuhn, Jr., “Five Thinkers Chart Foreign Policy Reefs for Marshall,” Washington Post, June 15, 1947.

  44 GFK, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” Foreign Affairs 25 (July 1947), 566–82. For the unfortunate Varga, see Wohlforth, Elusive Balance, pp. 68–69, 77–87. The Foreign Affairs circulation figures come from the July 21, 1947, issue of Newsweek, p. 15.

  45 Arthur Krock, “A Guide to Official Thinking About Russia,” New York Times, July 8, 1947.

  46 GFK, Memoirs, I, 356; United Press account quoted in Daily Worker, July 9, 1947; Hessman interview by Wright, October 1, 1970, p. 12; Ernest Lindley, “Article by ‘X’,” Washington Post, July 11, 1947; Grace Kennan Scrapbook, JEK Papers.

  47 “The Story Behind Our Russia Policy,” Newsweek 30 (July 21, 1947), 15–17.

  48 GFK, Memoirs, I, 356–57.

  49 “Lippmann’s ‘Cold War,’” Time, September 22, 1947; Lippmann, Cold War, pp. 4, 6–7, 11, 14. See also Steel, Walter Lippmann and the American Century, pp. 443–45.

  50 Lippmann interview by Allan Nevins and Dean Albertson, April 8, 1950, pp. 258–59, Walter Lippmann Papers, 123:2419.
The British embassy was fully aware of Kennan’s position. See Balfour to Bevin, May 15, 1947, British Foreign Office Records, FO 371/61047/AN1795.

  51 GFK, Memoirs, I, 360; Steel, Walter Lippmann, pp. 342–66; GFK interview, February 2, 1977.

  52 Armstrong to GFK, November 5, 1947, GFK to Armstrong, November 7, 1947, GFK Papers, 140:3.

  53 GFK to Byron Dexter, April 11, 1947, ibid.; GFK, Memoirs, I, 360.

  54 Butterfield, Whig Interpretation of History, p. 21; GFK, Memoirs, I, 364.

  THIRTEEN ● POLICY PLANNER: 1947–1948

  1 GFK National War College lecture, “Planning of Foreign Policy,” June 18, 1947, in Harlow and Maerz, Measures Short of War, pp. 207–8.

  2 GFK, Memoirs, I, 345.

  3 GFK’s May 5 and June 18, 1947, National War College lectures are in Harlow and Maerz, Measures Short of War, pp. 175–216. For the Kennan-Davies relationship, see Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 212–18.

  4 GFK notes for Marshall, July 21, 1947, in FRUS: 1947, III, 335; PPS/4, “Certain Aspects of the European Recovery Problem from the United States Standpoint (Preliminary Report),” July 23, 1947, PPS, 1947, pp. 31–32, 50.

  5 Clayton to Robert Lovett, August 25, 1947, in FRUS: 1947, III, 377–79. For background on the Paris Conference, see Hogan, Marshall Plan, pp. 60–73.

  6 Franks interview, August 1, 1987, pp. 1–5.

  7 GFK report, “Situation With Respect to European Recovery Program,” September 4, 1947, in FRUS: 1947, III, 397–405.

  8 “Homeward bound—at dawn over mid-Atlantic,” GFK Diary, 1947, GFK Papers, 231:15; Pflanze, Bismarck and the Development of Germany, p. 80.

  9 GFK to Cecil B. Lyons, October 13, 1947, PPS Records, Box 33, “Chronological—1947.”

  10 GFK talk to the Business Advisory Committee, Department of Commerce, September 24, 1947, GFK Papers, Box 17, “1947, June—December.” See also GFK’s notes for a conversation with Marshall, July 21, 1947, in FRUS: 1947, III, 335.

  11 For the organization of the Cominform, see Mastny, Cold War and Soviet Insecurity, pp. 30–33.

  12 GFK to Lovett, October 6, 1947, PPS Records, Box 33, “Chronological—1947.”

  13 GFK National War College lectures, “Formulation of Policy in the U.S.S.R.,” September 18, 1947, “Soviet Diplomacy,” October 6, 1947, and “The Internal Political System [of the Soviet Union],” October 27, 1947, in Harlow and Maerz, Measures Short of War, pp. 217–92.

  14 PPS/13, “Résumé of World Situation,” in FRUS: 1947, I, 770–77. For Marshall’s summary, see pp. 770n–71n.

  15 PPS/15, “Report on Activities of the Policy Planning Staff (May to November 1947),” November 13, 1947, in PPS Papers, I, 139–46.

  16 For more on the PPS-NSC relationship, see Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 76–78; and Nelson, “Introduction,” in PPS Papers, I, xix.

  17 Philip Harkins, “Mysterious Mr. X.,” New York Herald Tribune magazine, January 4, 1948.

  18 JKH interview, December 21, 1982, p. 26, and ASK interview, August 26, 1982, pp. 14–16.

  19 Adams interview by Wright, September 30, 1970, pp. 5, 17; Tufts interview, February 5, 1987, p. 6; and John Paton Davies interview, December 8, 1982, p. 4.

  20 Fosdick interview, October 29, 1987, pp. 1–2.

  21 Henderson interview, pp. 7–8, and Davies interview, December 8, 1982, p. 5.

  22 GFK interview, August 25, 1982, pp. 22–23; Tufts interview, pp. 1–2; and Hessman interview, p. 4; Green interview by Kennedy, March 2, 1995.

  23 GFK, “Foreword” in PPS Papers, I, vii. I have discussed these papers at length in Gaddis, Strategies of Containment, especially pp. 24–86.

  24 PPS/8, “United States Policy in the Event of the Establishment of Communist Power in Greece,” September 18, 1947, in PPS Papers, I, 91–101; PPS/9, “Possible Action by the U.S. to Assist the Italian Government in the Event of Communist Seizure of North Italy and the Establishment of an Italian Communist ‘Government’ in that Area,” ibid., pp. 1027. For “counter-pressures,” see GFK’s October 6, 1947, National War College lecture, in Harlow and Maerz, Measures Short of War, p. 258.

  25 GFK to Lovett, August 19, 1947, and Forrestal, September 29, 1947, PPS Records, Box 33, “Chronological—1947.”

  26 Truman statement, December 13, 1947, Public Papers of the Presidents: Truman 1947, document 234. NSC 1/1 is in FRUS: 1948, III, 724–27. For more on this episode, see Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 84–87.

  27 State Department memorandum, “Coordination of Foreign Information Measures (NSC 4) Psychological Operations (NSC 4-A),” and NSC 4-A, “Psychological Operations,” both dated December 17, 1947, in FRUS: Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, pp. 646–51. Truman’s approval is noted on p. 650n. For more on the background of these documents, see the editorial introduction on pp. 615–17; see also the CIA’s internal history, completed in 1953 but not declassified until 1989: Darling, Central Intelligence Agency, pp. 256–62.

  28 Henderson memorandum, “Willingness of United States Government in Certain Circumstances to Dispatch United States Forces to Greece,” December 22, 1947, in FRUS: 1947, V, 458–61; Memorandum of State Department meeting, December 26, 1947, ibid., pp. 468–69; GFK memorandum, NSC meeting, January 13, 1948, in FRUS: 1948, IV, 27. See also Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 87–93.

  29 PPS/19, “Position of the United States with Respect to Palestine,” January 20, 1948, in PPS Papers, II, 39–41; GFK Diary, January 28, 1948.

  30 PPS/21, “The Problem of Palestine,” February 11, 1948, in PPS Papers, II, 80–87. See also Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 93–99.

  31 GFK, Memoirs, I, 368.

  32 See, on these anxieties, Mackinder, “Geographical Pivot of History”; Spykman, America’s Strategy in World Politics, pp. 194–99; and Earle, Makers of Modern Strategy, pp. 148, 390–91, 404–5, 444–45, 452, 515, which GFK was reading in the summer of 1946.

  33 Joint Chiefs of Staff to the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee, June 9, 1947, in FRUS: 1947, VII, 838–48; GFK to Walton Butterworth, October 29, 1947, PPS Records, Box 33, “Chronological—1947” folder. See also Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 218–20. GFK’s National War College comments, delivered on May 6, 1947, are in Harlow and Maerz, Measures Short of War, pp. 198–99.

  34 “The Situation in China and U.S. Policy,” November 3, 1947, PPS Records, Box 13, “China 1947–8” folder.

  35 Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 220–23.

  36 Notes, Secretary of the Navy’s Council Meeting, January 14, 1948, GFK Papers, 299:3.

  37 PPS/23, “Review of Current Trends: U.S. Foreign Policy,” February 24, 1948, in FRUS: 1948, I, 523–29.

  38 Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations. Joel D. Rosenthal tracks the parallels between GFK and Morgenthau in Righteous Realists.

  39 PPS/15, “Report on Activities of the Policy Planning Staff (May to November 1947),” November 13, 1947, in PPS Papers, I, 146.

  40 Travis, Kennan and the Russian-American Relationship, pp. 292–93; GFK interview, September 4, 1984, p. 18; Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, p. 251; GFK Diary, January 30, 1948; GFK to MacMurray, September 19, 1950, ibid., 139:8. GFK discussed MacMurray’s warning in his first book, American Diplomacy, p. 48.

  41 The best treatment of MacArthur’s policies in Japan and of his political aspirations is James, Years of MacArthur, III, 1–217. The reference to Caesar is in GFK’s report on his first conversation with MacArthur on March 1, 1948, in PPS/28/2, “Memoranda of Conversations with General of the Army Douglas MacArthur,” in PPS Papers: 1948, II, 184.

  42 GFK, Memoirs, I, 376.

  43 GFK interview by Pogue; Green interview by Kennedy; GFK memorandum of conversation with MacArthur, March 5, 1948, in PPS/28/2, in PPS Papers, II, 186. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 382–
84; and Hessman interview by Wright, p. 20.

  44 GFK, Memoirs, I, 384–85; Green interview by Kennedy.

  45 James, Years of MacArthur, I, 63–66. Kennan family legend has it that one of MacArthur’s teachers was Miss Emily Strong, who also taught Jeanette and George, but I have not been able to confirm this independently. JKH interview by JEK, November 2, 1972, p. 35; GFK interview, December 13, 1987, p. 2.

  46 GFK memorandum of conversation with MacArthur, March 5, 1948, in PPS/28/2, in PPS Papers, II, 187–96; Green interview by Kennedy. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 370, 386; and Schaller, MacArthur, pp. 150–51.

  47 GFK, Memoirs, I, 386; Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 264–68.

  48 James, Years of MacArthur, III, 233. See also Schaller, MacArthur, pp. 150–51.

  49 GFK, Memoirs, I, 393; GFK interview, September 4, 1984, p. 18.

  50 GFK presentation to the Senate Armed Services Committee, “Preparedness as Part of Foreign Relations,” January 8, 1948, GFK Papers, 299:1. Soviet sources confirm GFK’s argument about the defensive objectives of the Czech coup. See Pechatnov and Edmondson, “The Russian Perspective,” in Levering et al., Debating the Origins of the Cold War, pp. 134–35.

  51 GFK to Marshall, January 6 and February 3, 1948, PPS Records, Box 33, “Chronological January–May 1948” folder. See also Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 116–20.

  52 PPS/27, “Western Union and Related Problems,” March 23, 1948, in PPS Papers, II, 162; GFK to Louis Halle, April 20, 1966, GFK Papers, 59:1–4. See also Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, pp. 113–23.

  53 Ibid., pp. 103–4. For Clay’s message, see Smith, Lucius D. Clay, pp. 466–67.

  54 GFK to Marshall and Lovett, March 15, 1948, in FRUS: 1948, III, 848–49.

  55 Hickerson annotation, ibid., p. 849n; Hickerson interview, November 15, 1983, p. 8.

  56 GFK, Memoirs, I, 403. For GFK’s moderate use of alcohol, see Black interview, November 24, 1987, p. 10.