George F. Kennan: An American Life (124 page)

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Authors: John Lewis Gaddis

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22
GFK to JKH, December 2, 1934, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 17,
ibid.,
240:2.
23
ASK to JKH, November 9, 1934, JEK Papers; ASK interview, August 26, 1982, p. 8.
24
GFK Diary, September 3, 1934. Compare with GFK’s “Memorandum for the Minister,” August 19, 1932, enclosed in dispatch #650 from the Riga Legation to the Department of State, discussed in Chapter Four.
25
ASK to Louise Wheeler, October 12, 1934, and JKH, November 9, 1934, JEK Papers; KWK to JLG, January 9, 1983, JLG Papers; GFK to JKH, November 24, 1934, GFK Papers, 23:10; and KWK interview, pp. 11–13.
26
ASK to JKH, November 9, 1934, JEK Papers; GFK to JKH, December 2, 1934, GFK Papers, 23:10.
27
GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 22–23, GFK Papers, 240:2; ASK to JKH, December 21, 1934, JEK Papers; ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 5. See also Thayer,
Bears in the Caviar,
pp. 106–14.
28
Wiley to Bullitt, December 27, 1934, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/174; Wiley to Bullitt, January 2, 1935, Bullitt Papers, 21:5; Bullitt to Wiley, January 7, 1934,
ibid.,
T14:2; Bullitt to GFK, January 7, 1934,
ibid.,
21:1; GFK to JKH, December 31, 1934, GFK Papers, 23:10.
29
GFK to JKH, December 31, 1934, January 20, 1935, and January 6, 1937 [misdated 1936],
ibid.
; GFK to Bullitt, February 12, 1935, Bullitt Papers, 21:1; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 25–27, GFK Papers, 240:2.
30
GFK to JKH, December 31, 1934, and February 10, 1935,
ibid.,
23:10.
31
GFK interviews, August 25, 1982, p. 1, and December 13, 1987, pp. 12–13; GFK Diary, February 12 and April 11, 1935; GFK to Bullitt, February 12, 1935, Bullitt Papers, 21:1; Henderson interview, September 25, 1982, p. 4. I have slightly edited the diary passage.
32
GFK Diary, February 4, 6, 14, 15, 1935; GFK to JKH, February 10, 1935,
ibid.,
23:10. The letter to Follmer is quoted in the diary entry for February 6.
33
GFK to JKH, March 6 and April 29, 1935, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK Diary, April 8, 1935; GFK to ASK, April 20, 1935, JEK Papers.
34
GFK Diary, February 15, 1935; GFK to Bullitt, February 12, 1935, Bullitt Papers, 21:1.
35
Bullitt to R. Walton Moore, May 11, 1935,
ibid.,
T12:13; GFK to Bullitt, April 15, 1935,
ibid.,
21:1; Bullitt to Thomas D. White, June 6, 1935,
ibid.,
21:5; ASK to JKH, May 31, 1935, JEK Papers.
36
GFK Diary, April 20, 1935; GFK to JKH, June 28, July 30, September 11 and 30, 1935,
ibid.,
23:10; GFK to Bullitt, November 4, 1935, Bullitt Papers, 21:1.
37
GFK,
Memoirs,
I
,
64; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 14–15, GFK Papers, 240:2.
38
GFK to JKH, November 17, 1935,
ibid.,
23:10. For a recent but still inconclusive account of the Kirov murder, see Simon Sebag Montefiore,
Stalin: At the Court of the Red Tsar
(New York: Knopf, 2004), pp. 143–52.
39
GFK to JKH, December 25, 1935, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK to Charles James, December 16, 1935,
ibid.,
24:4; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 36–38,
ibid.
, 240:2.
40
Ibid.,
pp. 41–44; Bullitt fitness report on GFK, August 1, 1936, Bullitt Papers, T12:21. See also, for a detailed account of this trip, GFK,
Sketches from a Life,
pp. 27–33.
41
Bullitt to State Department, April 20, 1936, in
FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–1939,
p. 292. See also Bullitt,
For the President
, pp. 134–35, and Henderson,
Question of Trust
, pp. 319–85, 407–8.
42
GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 13–14, 23–24, 38–40, GFK Papers, 240:2; GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 68–70. The Neill Brown observations were included in Bullitt to State Department, March 4, 1936, in
FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–1939
, pp. 289–91. GFK described their discovery in a lecture to the Canadian National Defence College on May 31, 1948, GFK Papers, 299:9.
43
Bullitt to State Department, April 20, 1936, in
FRUS: The Soviet Union
,
1933–1939,
p. 296.
44
See “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,”
Foreign Affairs
25 (July 1947), especially pp. 580–82.
45
Bullitt fitness report on GFK, August 1, 1936, Bullitt Papers, T12:21.
46
GFK to Bullitt, June 9, 1936,
ibid.,
and September 4, 1936,
ibid.,
20:17.
SIX ● REDISCOVERING AMERICA: 1936–1938
1
GFK to State Department, January 9, 1936, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/213.
2
ASK to JKH, November 2, 1935, JEK Papers; GFK 1938 memoir “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 41, GFK Papers, 240:2; GFK to JKH, December 25, 1935,
ibid.,
23:10.
3
GFK to Bullitt, June 9, 1936, Bullitt Papers, T12:21.
4
GFK to JKH, May 13, 1935, GFK Papers, 23:10.
5
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 77.
6
Ibid.
; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 47–50, GFK Papers, 240:2; also GFK to JKH, September 8, 1936,
ibid.,
23:10.
7
Ibid
.; J. Klahr Huddle to State Department, April 17, 1937, Department of State, Inspection Reports on Foreign Service Posts, 1906–39, Box 102.
8
GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 66, GFK Papers, 240:2; R. Walton Moore to Bullitt, March 19, 1936, Bullitt Papers, T12:15. The information on embassy productivity is in the Huddle inspection report, April 17, 1937.
9
GFK to JKH, December 6, 1936, GFK Papers, 23:10; ASK to JKH, January 2, 1937, JEK Papers; Thayer,
Bears in the Caviar,
pp. 132, 135.
10
ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 6; GFK to JKH, September 8, 1936, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK Diary, May 30, 1937.
11
GFK to JKH, December 6, 1936, GFK Papers, 23:10; also ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 19.
12
Henderson,
Question of Trust,
p. 414; Davies,
Mission to Moscow,
p. xviii; GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 82. See also, on Davies’s background, MacLean,
Joseph E. Davies,
pp. 7–22.
13
Henderson interview, p. 3; Huddle inspection report, April 17, 1937.
14
GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 67, GFK Papers, 240:2; GFK to JKH, February 17, 1937,
ibid.,
23:10; ASK to JKH, March 3, 1937, JEK Papers; GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” GFK Papers, 240:3; GFK to Eugene Hotchkiss, undated but March 1937,
ibid.,
23:10.
15
ASK interview, September 8, 1983, p. 4; Davies to GFK, February 2, 1937, Davies Papers, Box 3; GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 82–83; Davies to State Department, February 17 and 18, 1937, DSR-DF 1930–39, 861.00/ 11675–76; Kelley to Hull, March 13, 1937,
ibid.,
861.00/11676. Davies’s February 18 dispatch forwarded Kennan’s report, “The Trial of Radek and Others,” dated February 13, 1937, subsequently published in
FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–1939,
pp. 362–69. See also MacLean,
Joseph E. Davies
, pp. 28–30.
16
GFK to Peter S. Bridges, September 20, 1963, GFK Papers, 57. See also GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 71–72,
ibid.,
240:2; Thayer,
Bears in the Caviar,
pp. 95–96; MacLean,
Joseph E. Davies
, p. 40; and, for official reports, Henderson to State Department, May 14 and August 10, 1937, in
FRUS: The Soviet Union
,
1933–1939,
pp. 441–42, 445–46.
17
Davies to Kelley, February 10, 1937, Davies Papers, Box 3.
18
GFK to JKH, December 6, 1936, and March 31, 1937, GFK Papers, 23:10.
19
GFK 1938 memoir “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 68–70,
ibid.,
240:2; GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 85; Bullitt to R. Walton Moore, June 15, 1937, Bullitt Papers, T12:16. For another version of the library story, see Bohlen,
Witness to History,
p. 41.
20
Moore to Bullitt, June 26, 1937, Bullitt Papers, T12:16; GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 84–85; also MacLean,
Joseph E. Davies,
pp. 37–38.
21
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 82–83; GFK to Rebecca Matlock, October 29, 1987, GFK Papers, 27:18; GFK 1938 memoir “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 70,
ibid.,
240:2.
22
ASK to JKH, June 24 and July 28, 1937, JEK Papers; Hull to GFK, August 13, 1937, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/246.
23
Bullitt to Moore, June 15, 1937, Bullitt Papers, T12:16; Henderson to Bullitt, September 3, 1937,
ibid.,
22: 10; GFK to JKH, September 14, 1937, GFK Papers, 22:10; GFK to Hull, August 16, 1937, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/248. See also Henderson,
Question of Trust,
p. 397.
24
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 85; GFK Diary, October 17, 24, 25, 1937, and February 11, 1938; GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” GFK Papers, 240:3.
25
GFK to JKH, November 3, 1937,
ibid.,
23:10; ASK to JKH, October 19 and December 20, 1937, JEK Papers; GFK to JKH, December 26, 1937, and February 8, 1938, GFK Papers, 23:10.
26
GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” pp. 4, 15, GFK Papers, 240:3; GFK memorandum, “The Position of an American Ambassador in Moscow,” November 24, 1937, in
FRUS: The Soviet Union
,
1933–1939,
p. 446; GFK,
Memoirs,
I
,
85–86; GFK and Edward Page, Jr., memorandum, “Comments on the Memorandum of Oral Conversation Left by the Soviet Ambassador,” July 19, 1938, in
FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–1939,
p. 658; GFK memorandum, December 23, 1937, DSR-DF 1930–39, 711.61/628.
27
GFK lecture, “Russia,” delivered at the Foreign Service School, May 20, 1938, GFK Papers, 298:1.
28
Troyanovsky to Stalin (from Washington), June 20, 1938, and a second undated report (from Moscow), Presidential Archive of the Russian Federation, Fond 3, Opis 66, Delo 362, ll. 140–211, translation by Jeffrey Mankoff. The Davies dispatch is in
FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–39,
pp. 542–51.
29
“Memoires of Dr. Frieda Por,” enclosed in a letter to GFK and ASK, June 12, 1977, GFK Papers, 39:5; ASK to Frieda Por (in German), July 25, 1938, JEK Papers. See also, on the Frieda Por emigration, GFK interview, December 13, 1987, pp. 11–12; and ASK to GFK, undated but summer 1938, JEK Papers.
30
GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” pp. 17–19, GFK Papers, 240:3. GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 75–76, misdates this trip as 1936.
31
GFK,
Sketches from a Life,
pp. 36–44; also GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” GFK Papers, 240:3.
32
GFK, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,”
Foreign Affairs
25 (July 1947), 582.
33
GFK, “The Prerequisites: Notes on the Problems of the United States in 1938,” and “II. Government,” GFK Papers, 240:4.
34
Mayers,
George Kennan and the Dilemmas of U.S. Foreign Policy,
p. 338n; GFK interview, January 30, 1991, p. 13. Wright, “George F. Kennan, Scholar-Diplomat,” pp. 133–34, catalogs the political incorrectness with succinct precision.
35
Isaacson and Thomas,
Wise Men,
p. 172.
36
See, for example, GFK,
Around the Cragged Hill,
pp. 232–49.
37
GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 29–31, GFK Papers, 240:2. See also, on the global significance of the New Deal, Hamby,
For the Survival of Democracy.
38
GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” p. 9,
ibid.,
240:3.
39
Ibid.,
pp. 1–2.
40
Bohlen interview by Wright, September 29, 1970. I have edited this passage for clarity.
41
GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” pp. 31–33, GFK Papers, Box 19R.
SEVEN ● CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND GERMANY: 1938–1941
1
GFK to Bullitt, August 15, 1938, Bullitt Papers, 4:12. See also GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 86.
2
GFK undated memoir, “Prague—Munich to Occupation, 1938–1939,” pp. 1–3, GFK Papers, 240:3. The
Washington Post
clippings, dated September 15, 1938, are in the JEK Papers.
3
GFK undated memoir, “Prague—Munich to Occupation, 1938–1939,” pp. 3–4, GFK Papers, 240:3; State Department radiogram, September 24, 1938, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/272, National Archives.
4
GFK undated memoir, “Prague—Munich to Occupation, 1938–1939,” pp. 4–6, GFK Papers, 240:3.
5
Ibid.,
pp. 7–9.
6
GFK to Frieda Por (in German), October 15, 1938, JEK Papers; GFK personal notes, October 1938, in GFK,
From Prague After Munich,
pp. 3–4; GFK Diary, October 2, 1938.
7
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 90–92; GFK Diary, October 13, 1938. Gellhorn drew on her experiences in her first novel,
A Stricken Field
. There is an encounter with an apparently insensitive diplomat—although she makes him British—on pp. 162–65.
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.

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