George F. Kennan, 1904-2005
The name George F. Kennan may not mean much to many of you, but it means a lot to me. In many ways, it was reading his policy papers in high school that led me to study foreign policy in college, particularly our relationship to post-Soviet states.
Mr. Kennan was a diplomat and Ambassador in the decades after World War II who was tremendously instrumental in shaping American policy regarding Europe and the Soviet Union. He was among the chief architects of the Marshall Plan and his policy writing was key in formulating the strategy of containment that, among other factors, helped the United States deter the advance of Soviet power by using means beyond military power.
It’s been a decade or so since I’ve read Kennan’s papers and lectures in any serious way, so I may have to put his books back on my reading list. And I’m particularly looking forward to the completion of John Lewis Gaddis’ biography.
I don’t know how much Kennan wrote in recent years, since he was 101 when he passed away. But I have a feeling the wisdom in his past writing and lectures will still have resonance today, particularly at a time when our foreign policy is increasingly being run out of the Pentagon.
In fact, even a quick scan of the passages I underlined from a 1985 edition of Kennan’s American Diplomacy reveals this nugget from a 1984 lecture at the University of Chicago entitled “American Diplomacy and the Military”:
...This is not a plea for a total isolationism, such as our grandfathers and great-grandfathers cultivated. It is only a request, if I may put it that way, for a greater humility in our national outlook, for a more realistic recognition of our limitations as a body politic, and for a greater restraint than we have shown in recent decades in involving ourselves in complex situations far from our shores. And it is a plea that we bear in mind that in the interaction of peoples, just as in the interactions of individuals, the power of example is far greater than the power of precept, and that the example offered to the world at this moment by the United States of America is far from being what it could be and ought to be. Let us present to the world outside our borders the face of a country that has learned to cope with crime and poverty and corruption, with drugs and pornography. Let us prove ourselves capable of taking the great revolution in electronic communication in which we are all today embraced and turning it to the intellectual and spiritual elevation of our people in place of the enervation and debilitation and abuse of the intellect that the TV set now so often inflicts upon us. Let us do these things, and others like them, and we will not need 27,000 nuclear warheads and a military budget of over $250 billion to make the influence of America felt in the world beyond our borders. (pp. 178-79, emphasis mine)
I think what attracted me most to Kennan’s ideas was his consistent advocacy for the place of “soft power” in America’s arsenal. He was able to distinguish political threats from military threats, even when the political threats came from military giants. And his policy prescriptions flowed out of that distinction. He recognized that one of the keys to preventing the spread of Stalinist power after World War II was for America to invest profoundly in the rebuilding of Europe and Japan. Kennan never abdicated the role of military power in deterring aggression around the globe, but knew the tremendous utility of alliances, of diplomacy, and of “the power of example.”
I wonder what he thought about the months leading up to our military action in Iraq. I wonder what he thought of the current administration’s efforts at diplomacy and fostering alliances. I wonder what he thought about the “power of example” in Abu Graib and Fallujah. I can certainly speculate....
In any event, I just wanted to spend some time remembering Mr. Kennan’s tremendous service to our country and the inspiration I’ve found in his policies, lectures and writings.
One final note: the lengthy New York Times article linked above mentions that he is survived by his wife of over 70 years. 70! Wow.
Update: If you dig this kinda thing, Foreign Affairs emailed me to say that they’ve posted links to more than a dozen of Kennan’s past articles. This list includes the classic ”The Sources of Soviet Conduct” and one from 1995 titled ”On American Principles” that I’ll have to read later when I have time.