George F. Kennan: An American Life (127 page)

14
GFK to State Department, July 15, 1945, Department of State, Record Group 84, Moscow Harriman Telegrams, Box 6, #167 Russia; GFK to Harriman, July 26, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 181.

15
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 279; GFK notes, Stalin-Harriman conversation, August 8, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 181.

16
GFK interview, September 7, 1983, p. 12; GFK to Harriman, September 30, 1945, in
FRUS: 1945
, V, 884n; GFK to Byrnes, September 30, 1945,
ibid.,
pp. 885–86.

17
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 275–78; Senator Claude Pepper notes on interview with Stalin, September 14, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 182. Kennan’s report on the meeting with the congressmen, sent to the State Department on September 15, 1945, is in
FRUS: 1945,
V, 881–84
.
For the origins of the “Russian loan” question, see Herring,
Aid to Russia,
pp. 144–78.

18
Transcript, Moscow embassy staff conference, October 10, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 183; GFK to Byrnes, October 4, 1945, in
FRUS: 1945
, V, 888–91; Byrnes to GFK, October 8, 1945,
ibid.,
p. 888n.

19
Wilgress to the Ministry of External Affairs, Ottawa, November 14, 1945, Pearson to Norman Robertson, December 6, 1945, both in Record Group 25, Volume 5696, External Affairs Records, National Archives of Canada.

20
Unsigned memorandum, October 25, 1945, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder. See also Bohlen to Harriman, October 5, 1945,
ibid.

21
Roberts interview, pp. 3, 6. See also Roberts,
Dealing with Dictators,
pp. 92–93.

22
GFK to Harriman, October 12, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 183; Transcript, Moscow embassy staff conference, October 10, 1945,
ibid.

23
Messer,
End of an Alliance,
pp. 135–48, provides a good account of Byrnes’s thinking. For the failure to consult Bevin, see Bullock,
Ernest Bevin
, pp. 198–99.

24
GFK Diary, December 10, 1945.

25
Ibid.,
December 14, 1945.

26
Ibid.,
December 19, 1945. Underlining in the original.

27
GFK Diary, December 17, 1945.

28
GFK draft, “The United States and Russia,” winter 1946, in GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 560–65
.

29
Wilgress to Norman Robertson, January 15, 1946, Record Group 25, Volume 5696, Ministry of External Affairs Records, National Archives of Canada. Emphasis added.

30
GFK to Durbrow, January 21, 1946, GFK Papers, 140:4.

31
Berlin interview, p. 1; Patricia Davies interview, December 7, 1982, p. 5; Davies,
Dragon by the Tail,
pp. 389–90.

32
Durbrow interview, p. 2; Henderson interview, pp. 3–4; Mautner interview, p. 1; Crawford interview by Wright, pp. 4, 22.

33
Hessman interview, p. 3; Mautner interview, pp. 1–2.

34
Roberts interview, p. 5; Berlin interview, pp. 26, 29.

35
Crawford interview by Wright, September 29, 1970, pp. 2, 23; Berlin interview, pp. 1, 3.

36
John and Patricia Davies interview, December 7, 1982, pp. 5–6; Berlin interview, p. 8.

37
John and Patricia Davies interview, December 7, 1982, pp. 9–10.

38
Ibid.,
pp. 7–8.

39
GFK to Bullitt, January 22, 1946, Bullitt Papers, 32:3.

40
GFK to State Department, January 2, 1946, Harriman Papers, Box 185. Kennan’s explanation of the circumstances surrounding the “long telegram” is in his
Memoirs,
I, 293. I myself have perpetuated these errors in several books and in far too many classroom lectures. I am grateful to Nicholas Thompson for actually counting the number of words in the “long telegram.”

41
GFK to State Department, February 8, 1946, in
FRUS: 1946,
VI, 693
.
The text of Stalin’s speech was printed in
Vital Speeches of the Day
12 (March 1, 1946), 300–304.

42
GFK to State Department, February 12, 1946, in
FRUS: 1946,
VI, 694–96; GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 292–93.

43
Durbrow interview, p. 3. I have discussed the shifting Washington mood in
United States and the Origins of the Cold War,
pp. 282–302.

44
Durbrow interview, pp. 3–4; Byrnes to GFK, February 13, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, 861.00/2–1245.

45
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 293; Harriman interview, pp. 5–6; Harriman to JLG, September 23, 1982, JLG Papers; Hessman interview, p. 4; Mautner interview, p. 2.

46
Durbrow interview, pp. 4–5; Matthews to GFK, February 25, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, 861.00/2-2246; Byrnes to GFK, February 27, 1946,
ibid.

47
Harriman interview, pp. 5–6; GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 294–95. See also Harriman to Forrestal, February 26, 1946, Harriman Papers, Box 186; Millis,
Forrestal Diaries,
pp. 135–36; and Hoopes and Brinkley,
Driven Patriot
, pp. 270–73.

48
GFK to State Department, February 22, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, 861.00/2-2246. The “long telegram” also appears in
FRUS: 1946,
VI, 696–709.

49
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 294–95.

1
Lilienthal Diary, March 6, 1946, in Lilienthal,
Journals of Lilienthal,
II, 26.

2
Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
p. 27.

3
J. C. Donnelly minute, March 5, 1946, AN 587/1/45; British Foreign Office Records, FO 371/51606, National Archives, London.

4
Byrnes speech to the Overseas Press Club, February 28, 1946,
Department of State Bulletin
14 (March 10, 1946), 355–58. See also, for the American policy shift as well as the background to Churchill’s speech, Harbutt,
Iron Curtain,
pp. 151–82.

5
H. Freeman Matthews to Robert Murphy, March 12, 1946, Murphy to Matthews, April 3, 1946, Robert Murphy Papers, Box 58 (courtesy of Christian Ostermann).

6
Donnelly minute, March 5, 1946.

7
“Looking Outward,”
Time
47 (February 18, 1946), 29–30. The best account of the Bohlen-Robinson report is in Messer, “Paths Not Taken.” The first section of the report, completed in December 1945, is
Diplomatic History
1 (Fall 1977), pp. 389–99, and the final draft version is in DSR-DF 1945–49, 711.61/21446, Box 3428. See also Ruddy,
Cautious Diplomat,
pp. 57–59.

8
Bohlen memorandum, March 13, 1946, Bohlen Papers, Box 4, “Memos (CEB) 1946” folder, National Archives.

9
Matthews to Murphy, March 12, 1946, Murphy Papers, Box 58; Norweb to GFK, March 25, 1946, GFK Papers, 140:4.

10
Roberts interview, March 15, 1993, pp. 4, 10–12. See also Roberts,
Dealing with Dictators
, pp. 107–9. The Roberts dispatches are published in Jensen,
Origins of the Cold War,
pp. 33–67.

11
GFK, “Commentary [on the Novikov Dispatch],” 540–41; GFK interview, December 13, 1995, p. 12; Kondrashov interview by Pechatnov, May 29, 1999. The Novikov dispatch is in Jensen,
Origins of the Cold War,
pp. 3–16. For a confirmation of Kennan’s guess about Soviet intelligence, see Pechatnov and Edmondson, “Russian Perspective,” in Levering et al.,
Debating the Origins of the Cold War,
p. 116.

12
GFK to Bruce Hopper, April 17, 1946, GFK Papers, 140:4.

13
Ibid.,
GFK to Durbrow, March 7, 1946, Byrnes to GFK, March 11, 1946, Smith to GFK, March 12, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder.

14
GFK to Byrnes, March 13, 1946, GFK to Durbrow, March 15, 1946,
ibid.

15
Durbrow interview, p. 5; GFK to Durbrow, April 2, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder.

16
Smith to Matthews, April 17, 1946,
ibid.;
GFK to Bohlen, April 19, 1946,
ibid.

17
GFK to State Department, May 22, 1946,
ibid.
; ASK to Frieda Por, June 24, 1946, JEK Papers; Donald Russell to GFK, June 20, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder.

18
GFK to Smith, June 27, 1946, JEK Papers.

19
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 307–8; also Earle,
Makers of Modern Strategy.

20
GFK interview, September 7, 1983, pp. 11–13; also GFK,
Nuclear Delusion,
pp. xiv–xv.

21
GFK 1946 National War College notebook, pp. 5, 14–15, GFK Papers, 231:14; also Brodie,
Absolute Weapon.
The article in question was by Percy E. Corbett.

22
GFK National War College notebook, p. 22.

23
Ibid.,
pp. 20–21. See also Crane Brinton, Gordon A. Craig, and Felix Gilbert, “Jomini,” in Earle,
Makers of Modern Strategy,
pp. 77–92, especially p. 88. Significantly, a July 1946
Fortune
article on the Foreign Service mentioned a group of its officers who “think in terms of ‘containing’ Russia by a series of firm stands on specific points: Iran, Trieste, and so on.” Kennan was mentioned separately—not in this context—as having written “shrewd and highly literate dispatches from Moscow; Byrnes calls him ‘by far the best reporter’ in the service.” “The U. S. Foreign Service,”
Fortune
34 (July 1946), 81–86, 200–207.

24
GFK National War College notebook, pp. 23, 27. Clausewitz makes a cameo appearance in Tolstoy’s account of the Battle of Borodino. See
War and Peace,
p. 774.

25
GFK National War College notebook, pp. 23–27. For background on Rothfels, see Bassford,
Clausewitz in English
, pp. 185–86.

26
GFK interview, August 25, 1982, pp. 20–21.

27
Benton to Henderson and GFK, March 7, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, 861.00/2-2246, Box 6462; GFK to Smith, June 7, 1946,
ibid.,
Moscow 1946, Box 106, 711 Russia.

28
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 298–99; GFK to Smith, June 27, 1946, JEK Papers.

29
GFK interview, September 7, 1983, pp. 17–18. Kennan’s report, dated August 23, 1946, is to Francis H. Russell, chief of the State Department’s Division of Public Liaison, GFK Papers, 298:11. The Soviet summary is in Russian Federation Foreign Policy Archive, Opis 30, Papka 187, Delo 81, List 111-25. The FBI reports are from Kennan’s file, 62-81548, obtained August 11, 2000, under Freedom of Information/Privacy Act request 410933/190-HQ1312163, copies in GFK Papers, 181:3–6.

30
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 299; GFK to Acheson, October 8, 1946, Acheson Papers, Box 27, “State Department Under Secretary Correspondence, 1945–47” folder, Truman Library; Acheson to GFK, October 11, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder.

31
Hill, “Opening Address to the First Class,” September 3, 1946, National War College Archives, Washington, D.C. (courtesy of Michael Schmidt); “New War College Enters Atomic Era,”
New York Times,
September 4, 1946. See also Harlow and Maerz,
Measures Short of War,
p. xiv.

32
GFK address to Princeton University Bicentennial Conference on University Education and the Public Service, November 13–14, 1946, GFK Papers, 251:6; GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 306.

33
Transcript, GFK National War College lecture and discussion, September 16, 1946, GFK Papers, 298:12. The lecture, though not the record of the question period, is published in Harlow and Maerz,
Measures Short of War,
pp. 3–17.

34
GFK to KWK, October 5, 1946, JEK Papers; GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 307; Hessman interview, pp. 5–6.

35
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 307.

36
Transcript, Department of State off-the-record briefing by GFK and Llewellyn Thompson, September 17, 1946, GFK Papers, 298:13. For the Wallace controversy, see Blum,
Price of Vision,
pp. 612–32, 661–69.

37
GFK lecture, “‘Trust’ as a Factor in International Relations,” Yale University Institute of International Studies, New Haven, Conn., October 1, 1946, GFK Papers, 298:15. See also Chekhov, “The New Villa,” in Ford,
Essential Tales of Chekhov,
p. 303.

38
GFK lecture, “Russia,” Naval War College, Newport, R.I., GFK Papers, 298:14. Kennan’s thinking on naval strategy may well have been influenced by Margaret Tuttle Sprout’s essay on Mahan in Earle,
Makers of Modern Strategy,
especially pp. 433–34.

39
I am indebted, on this point, to my Yale colleague Charles Hill, whose
Grand Strategies
brilliantly illustrates it.

40
Edward A. Dow, Jr., notes, Canadian–United States Defense Conversations, Ottawa, December 16 and 17, 1946, in
FRUS: 1946,
V, 70.

41
GFK to JKH, December 25, 1946, JEK Papers. President Truman had in fact approved Kennan’s appointment to the rank of career minister on November 25. Byrnes to GFK, January 6, 1947, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder.

42
GFK to Waldemar J. Gallman, March 14, 1947, GFK Papers, 140:3; GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 304–5.

43
ASK to Frieda Por, November 10, 1946, and February 10, 1947; GFK to Walter Bedell Smith, June 27, 1946; GFK to KWK, October 5, 1946, all in JEK Papers.

44
GFK to KWK, December 31, 1946 [misdated January 31],
ibid.
; ASK interview, August 26, 1982, p. 13. The fall lectures are listed in
Lecture Program, 1946–1956,
National War College Archives (courtesy of Michael Schmidt).