George F. Kennan: An American Life (130 page)

21
A point missed by several secondary studies of Kennan’s CIA connections, especially Corke,
U.S. Covert Operations and Cold War Strategy
, and Simpson,
Blowback.
Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 199–205, provides the most balanced assessment.

22
Rusk interview, p. 5; ASK interview, August 26, 1982, p. 15. See also, on Kennan’s failure to control OPC, Aldrich,
The Hidden Hand
, pp. 172–73.

23
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 405–6; GFK to Marshall and Lovett, April 29, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948
, III, 108–9. See also Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 128–29.

24
Reid to Hume Wrong, June 3, 1948, Ministry of External Affairs, Record Group 25, Volume 5800, File 283(S), Pt. 2.2, National Archives of Canada.

25
Franks interview, pp. 16–17; GFK interview by Pogue, pp. 23–25. See also Pogue,
George C. Marshall
, pp. 323–28.

26
GFK interview by Pogue, p. 25 (I have edited this passage slightly for clarity); GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 405–8. See also GFK to Louis Halle, April 20, 1966, GFK Papers, 57:1–4.

27
Hickerson interview, p. 11. The “Washington Exploratory Talks on Security,” which ran from July 6 through September 10, 1948, are extensively documented in
FRUS: 1948
, III, 148–250. See also Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 129–33; and Pogue,
George C. Marshall
, pp. 328–35.

28
R. Borden Reams to Marshall, June 30, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948
, IV, 1078. For background on the Yugoslav situation, see Lees,
Keeping Tito Afloat
, pp. 1–79. GFK’s prediction of trouble elsewhere is in E. Herbert Norman’s report to the Canadian Department of External Affairs on Kennan’s Tokyo press briefing, March 6, 1948, Ministry of External Affairs, Record Group 25, Volume 5697, File 2AE(S), Pt. 2.1, National Archives of Canada.

29
PPS/35, “The Attitude of This Government Toward Events in Yugoslavia,” June 30, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948
, IV, 1079–81. See also Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 189–93.

30
FRUS: 1948,
IV, 1079n, tracks the bureaucratic history of PPS/35. For the “wedge” strategy, see Gaddis,
Long Peace,
pp. 147–94; Mayers,
Cracking the Monolith
; and Selverstone,
Constructing the Monolith
.

31
PPS/39, “United States Policy Toward China,” September 7, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948,
VIII, 146–55. See also Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 223–26.

32
PPS/39/1, “U.S. Policy Toward China,” November 23, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948,
VIII, 208–11; GFK comment, question and answer period, lecture to the Pentagon Joint Orientation Conference, November 8, 1948, p. 23, GFK Papers, 299:17. See also GFK to Marshall and Lovett, November 24, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948,
VIII
,
211–12.

33
GFK draft presidential statement, in PPS/45, “U.S. Policy Toward China in the Light of the Current Situation,” November 26, 1948,
ibid.,
pp. 219–20; Marshall to Lovett, November 26, 1948,
ibid
. p. 220.

34
PPS39/1, November 23, 1948,
ibid.,
pp. 210–11.

35
GFK to Lovett, June 23, 1948, in PPS/33, “Factors Affecting the Nature of the U.S. Defense Arrangements in the Light of Soviet Policies,” in
PPS Papers
II, 281; Forrestal to the NSC, July 10, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948
, I, 591. For the budget battles of this period, see Leffler,
Preponderance of Power,
pp. 220–65; and Hogan,
Cross of Iron
, pp. 159–208.

36
GFK to Marshall and Lovett, August 5, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948,
I, 599–600; GFK to Marshall, August 25, 1948, PPS Records, Box 33, “Chronological July–December 1948” folder.

37
PPS/38, “United States Objectives With Respect to Russia,” August 18, 1948, in
PPS Papers,
II, 372–411. See also Schilling, “Politics of National Defense,” pp. 185–87.

38
NSC 20/4, “U.S. Objectives With Respect to the USSR to Counter Soviet Threats to U.S. Security,” November 23, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948
, I, 662–69. See also Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 197–99; and, for Forrestal’s frustration, Hoopes and Brinkley,
Driven Patriot
, pp. 405–19.

39
GFK to Frank Altschul, July 20, 1948, GFK Papers, 140:2; GFK to Lovett, August 2, 1948, PPS Records, Box 15, “Germany 1947–8” folder; GFK to Lovett, August 3, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948
, II, 994n; GFK to Smith, August 20, 1948, GFK Papers, 140:2.

40
PPS/37, “Policy Questions Concerning a Possible German Settlement,” August 12, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948
, II, 1287–97.

41
Clausewitz,
On War,
pp. 102, 109. For a more recent treatment of the phenomenon, see Gladwell,
Blink
. See also, for the analogy to painting, Churchill,
Painting as a Pastime
.

42
Hickerson to GFK, August 31, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948
, II, 1287n; GFK interview, September 8, 1983, p. 4; Rusk interview, p. 2; GFK to Marshall and Lovett, September 8, 1948, PPS Records, Box 33, “Chronological July–December 1948” folder.

43
GFK to Marshall, September 17, 1948,
ibid
. See also, for the consultants’ meeting, Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 148–49.

44
GFK National War College lecture, “Contemporary Problems of Foreign Policy,” September 17, 1948, GFK Papers, 299:12. The Shakespeare reference is from
Hamlet
, Act I, Scene III, lines 62–63: “The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, / Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.”

45
PPS/37/1, “Position to Be Taken by the U.S. at a CFM Meeting,” November 15, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948
, II, 1320–38. See also GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 425–26.

46
Ibid.
, 409–10; PPS/43, “Considerations Affecting the Conclusion of a North Atlantic Security Pact,” November 24, 1948, in
FRUS: 1948,
III, 283–89.

47
GFK lecture to Pentagon Joint Orientation Conference, “Estimate of the International Situation,” November 8, 1948, pp. 11–12, GFK Papers, 299:17.

48
I have made this argument at greater length in
Strategies of Containment,
pp. 82–83, 86.

49
ASK to Frieda Por, no date, JEK Papers; GFK Diary, September 25–26, 1948. The transcripts of GFK’s lectures and speeches are in GFK Papers
,
299:8–19. For his lecture schedule, see the list dated March 17, 1949, in PPS Records, Box 33, “Chronological—1949” folder. GFK’s NSC staff resignation is in a letter to Sidney Souers, December 3, 1948,
ibid.,
“Chronological July–December 1948” folder.

50
GFK National War College lecture, “Where Are We Today?” December 21, 1948, GFK Papers, 299:19.

51
Fosdick interview, p. 2; Rusk interview, p. 2; GFK interview, September 7, 1983, p. 2.

52
GFK, “Foreword,” in
PPS Papers
I, vii.

1
GFK lecture to Pentagon Joint Orientation Conference, “Estimate of the International Situation,” November 8, 1948, pp. 11–12, GFK Papers, 299:17. For Acheson’s appointment, see Acheson,
Present at the Creation,
pp. 249–50; and Beisner,
Dean Acheson
, pp. 82–83.

2
GFK to Acheson, January 3, 1949, Acheson Papers, Box 64, “Memos—conversations January–February 1949” folder, Truman Library. The references to defunct leaders were to Aleksandr Kerensky, prime minister of the Russian Provisional Government until its overthrow by the Bolsheviks in November 1917, Heinrich Brüning, chancellor of Germany from 1930 to 1932, Konstantin Dumba, the last Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the United States, expelled for espionage in 1915, and King Peter II of Yugoslavia, deposed in 1945.

3
Acheson,
Present at the Creation,
p. 141; Franks interview, p. 20; Beisner,
Dean Acheson
, pp. 88–89, 596.

4
GFK interview, October 31, 1974, p. 3; Franks interview, pp. 20–21.

5
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 426; GFK interview, September 8, 1983, p. 5; Davies interview, December 8, 1982, p. 5. See also Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 157–58, and Beisner,
Dean Acheson
, p. 119.

6
GFK Diary, March 9–10, 1949, GFK Papers, 231:17.

7
GFK to Acheson, January 3, 1949, Acheson Papers, Box 64, Truman Library.

8
Lippmann to GFK, February 1, 1949, Lippmann Papers, 81:1281. Lippmann’s column, “The Dark Prospect in Germany,” appeared in
The Washington Post
on December 30, 1948. See also Acheson’s National War College lecture of September 16, 1948, Acheson Papers, Box 69, “Classified Off the Record Speeches, 1947–52” folder, Truman Library; also Steel,
Walter Lippmann
, pp. 458–59; and Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
p. 159.

9
For the extent to which Lippmann’s criticisms influenced Program A, see Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 146–47.

10
The Stalin interview is in
FRUS: 1949,
V, 562–63. For Acheson’s careful analysis of it and the clarifications that followed, see his
Present at the Creation,
pp. 267–70.

11
Murphy, “Memorandum for the Files,” February 19, 1949, Murphy Papers, Box 77 (courtesy of Christian Ostermann). For a representative summary of arguments against Program A, see DRE SP-2, a State Department Office of Intelligence Research paper, “Effects of Postponement of the Western German State,” in
FRUS: 1949,
III, 194–95.

12
GFK to Acheson and James Webb, February 8, 1949, PPS Records, Box 15, “Germany 1949” folder; Franks to Foreign Office, March 4, 1949, British Foreign Office Records, FO 371/74160; Murphy minutes, Acheson-GFK conversation, March 9, 1949, in
FRUS: 1949
, III, 102–3; Murphy to Clay, March 10, 1949, Murphy Papers, Box 57 (courtesy of Christian Ostermann). See also Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 161–63; and Beisner,
Dean Acheson
, pp. 134–35.

13
GFK Diary, March 10–12, 1949.

14
GFK Diary, “Visit to Germany,” March 10–21, 1949, partially published also in GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 429–42. GFK’s account of his conversation with François-Poncet also appears in
FRUS: 1949,
III, 113–14.

15
GFK to Acheson (unsent), March 29, 1949, GFK Papers, 163:58.

16
Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
p. 162.

17
Jessup to Acheson, April 19, 1949, in
FRUS: 1949,
III, 859–62; GFK memorandum, “Position of the United States at Any Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers on Germany That May Occur,” April 15, 1949,
ibid.,
pp. 858–59. See also Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 166–69; and GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 443.

18
Acheson to Lewis Douglas, May 11, 1949, in
FRUS: 1949,
III, 872–73; James Reston, “U.S. Plan Weighed,”
New York Times,
May 12, 1949.

19
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 444–45; Bohlen,
Witness to History
, pp. 285–86; Jessup to Acheson and Murphy, May 14, 1949, in
FRUS: 1949
, III, 878; Acheson to Truman, May 22, 1949,
ibid.,
p. 893; Nitze,
From Hiroshima to Glasnost
, pp. 71–72.

20
Reston,
Deadline
, p. 323; GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 444.

21
Acheson,
Present at the Creation,
pp. 291–92. See also Miscamble,
Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy,
pp. 169–70.

22
GFK to Acheson, May 20, 1949, in
FRUS: 1949
, III, 888–90.

23
The cat metaphor comes from Beisner,
Acheson,
p. 141.

24
GFK,
Memoirs,
I, 447. See also, on the larger context, Schwartz,
America’s Germany
, pp. 35–40, 306–7.

25
Quoted in Beisner,
Dean Acheson
, p. 544.

26
PPS/49, “Economic Relations Between the United States and Yugoslavia,” February 10, 1949, in
PPS Papers:
III, 14–24.

27
PPS/39/2, “United States Policy Toward China,” February 25, 1949,
ibid.,
pp. 25–28.

28
GFK National War College lecture, “Where Are We Today?” December 21, 1948, p. 8, GFK Papers, 299:19; Minutes, Policy Planning Staff meeting, March 1, 1949, in
FRUS: 1949
, V, 10.

29
Draft Working Paper, “United States Policy Toward Communism,” March 8, 1949, PPS Records, Box 8, “Communism 1947–51” folder. One of the few scholarly evaluations of the Davies-Adams paper is Selverstone,
Constructing the Monolith
, pp. 122–25.

30
PPS minutes, April 1, 1949, in
FRUS: 1949
, V, 12.

31
For a recent overview of American anticommunism, see Morgan,
Reds.
Truman’s campaign attacks on Wallace are discussed in Hamby,
Man of the People
, pp. 453–54.

32
Acheson to U.S. embassy in Belgrade, February 25, 1949, in
FRUS: 1949
, V, 873; Willard Thorp memorandum of Acheson conversation with Paul Hoffman, February 19, 1949,
ibid.,
p. 872; Johnson-Acheson meeting memorandum, July 21, 1949,
ibid.,
p. 909; Minutes, Under Secretary of State Staff Meeting, August 31, 1949, Department of State Records, Executive Secretariat Files, Box 13; Eban Ayers Diary, September 15, 1949, Ayers Papers, Box 27, “Diary, 1949” folder.