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A comprehensive biography of George F. Kennan, an American diplomat and historian who advocated a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. Learn about his early life, diplomatic career, writings, and criticisms of U.S. foreign policy.
Learn about George F. Kennan, an American diplomat and historian who advocated a containment policy to oppose Soviet expansionism after World War II. Find out his achievements, awards, books, and views on U.S.-Soviet relations.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Mar 1, 2007 · Remembering George F. Kennan. The late George F. Kennan formulated the tenets that would guide U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union for a half-century. A Kennan Institute conference in February commemorated the ideas and ideals of this public intellectual who was both an extraordinary diplomat and scholar.
Mar 18, 2005 · George F. Kennan, the American diplomat who did more than any other envoy of his generation to shape United States policy during the cold war, died on Thursday night in Princeton, N.J. He was 101.
- Princeton Grad
- Foreign Service
- To Moscow
- World War II
- The "Long Telegram"
- Containment Policy
- Containment Misunderstood
- Ambassador to The Soviet Union
- Writer, Lecturer, Commentator
- Celebration of Stature
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
George Frost Kennan was born into an affluent family on the east side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father was a prosperous lawyer of Scotch-Irish descent, and his mother's heritage was German. George's mother died shortly after his birth, and his relationship with his father was not close. George, a quiet and bookish child, was enrolled in St. John...
Young Kennan had been a mediocre student at Princeton, but in 1926 he managed to score high marks on the newly instituted exams for entrance into the Foreign Service diplomatic corps, which was part of the U.S. State Department. Thrilled at being selected by the Foreign Service, Kennan drew his first posting in Geneva, Switzerland. This posting beg...
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945; served 1933–45) decided shortly after taking office that the United States needed to formally recognize the government of the Soviet Union; he soon announced that a U.S. embassy would be established in Moscow. The United States had gone sixteen years with no representation in the Soviet Union because the ...
In 1939, World War II began in Europe. Kennan was transferred to the U.S. wartime embassy in Berlin, the capital of Germany. The United States did not enter the war until December 1941; at that point, Germany and the United States formally became enemies. Kennan briefly found himself a detainee and was unable to leave Germany until May 1942. After ...
In February 1946, Stalin made a speech the night before elections of the Supreme Soviet, the Soviet legislative body. The speech denounced capitalism, the economic system of the United States and Western Europe. Capitalism is based on private ownership of property. Prices—and individual profits—are determined by competition in a free market, with r...
In the fall of 1946, Kennan accepted a lecturer's position at the Naval War College, but in the spring of 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall (1880–1959; see entry) made Kennan director of the new Policy Planning Staff (PPS), a group whose chief focus was U.S. diplomacy. In the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairsan article titled "The Source...
Kennan soon realized that his containment ideas had been misunderstood by U.S. government officials and military leaders. As he later explained in a PBS interview with David Gergen, editor-at-large for the magazine U.S. News and World Report, it was Kennan's fault that containment was misunderstood. "It all came down to one sentence in the 'X' arti...
Kennan left the Policy Planning Staff in June 1950, and that fall he moved to Princeton, New Jersey, to join the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967; see entry), the U.S. atomic physicist who successfully coordinated the development of the U.S. atomic bomb, headed this new research organization. By this time, Oppenh...
Kennan retired from government service at the end of 1952 and returned to the IAS, which would remain his home base for decades to come. He was made the Permanent Professor in the School of Historical Studies. There, he found a supportive environment and resources in which to write and develop lectures and commentary on global issues. He opposed th...
As Kennan grew older, his stature as a former statesman continued to grow. Gorbachev greeted Kennan warmly at their only meeting, which occurred in Washington, D.C., in 1987. Gorbachev expressed his admiration for Kennan, saying that Kennan understood that it was possible to embrace other peoples and still remain a devoted American. Honor and recog...
Learn about the life and career of George F. Kennan, one of the greatest U.S. diplomats and statesmen who shaped the policy of containment during the Cold War. Explore his background, education, experiences, and achievements in this comprehensive biography.
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Aug 14, 2021 · George Kennan stands second only to Henry Kissinger as one of the most influential and respected American geopolitical thinkers of the mid-20th century. His greatest achievement was providing the historical and conceptual underpinning of the US resistance to Soviet expansionism during the Cold War.
Learn about Kennan, a diplomatic historian and author of the "Long Telegram" that shaped the Cold War. He was a faculty member and ambassador at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1950 to 1974.
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