21 JKH interview, pp. 1, 9; JKH to JLG, September 24, 1983; FKW interview, p. 13; GFK, Memoirs, I, 1.
22 JKH interview, p. 6; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, pp. 4, 12.
23 JKH interview by JEK, p. 2.
24 CKB interview, p. 3; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 14; KWK interview, p. 5.
25 JKH interview, p. 1; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 3.
26 KKK reminiscences; FKW interview, p. 4; JKH, “Memoirs for Two,” p. 10.
27 GFK to JEK, November 12, 1972, JEK Papers. I have relied here also on the GFK Diary, July 9, 1927, and April 16, 1929, as well as on Seegert, Oakwood Bay Centennial. I am grateful to Jeanette’s son Jim Hotchkiss for giving me a tour of the area in 1996.
28 Anderson and Olson, Milwaukee: At the Gathering of the Waters, especially pp. 46, 57–60; Orum, City-Building in America, pp. 88–90.
29 JKH interview, p. 1; FKW interview, p. 4; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, pp. 8–9; CKB interview, p. 5; KKK reminiscences; Gregory, History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, p. 142; GFK interview by JEK, pp. 8–9. The book was KKK, Income Taxation—Method and Results in Various Countries.
30 Travis, George Kennan and the Russian-American Relationship, provides the fullest treatment of the first George Kennan’s life; but see also Saul, Concord and Conflict, especially pp. 281–92. Kennan’s most influential book was Siberia and the Exile System, but he also described his earlier experiences in Tent Life in Siberia.
31 GFK, Memoirs, I, 8; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 7.
32 George Kennan to KKK, December 30, 1912, typed copy in JKH Papers.
33 CKB interview, p. 6; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 7. See also JKH interview, pp. 28–29; and Travis, George Kennan, p. 107.
34 JKH interview, p. 28; GFK, Memoirs, I, 9.
35 Unless otherwise noted, the quotations in this section come from GFK’s letter to “my dear children,” Bad Nauheim, Germany, February 1942, GFK Papers, 140:9. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 5–6; and GFK, An American Family: The Kennans.
36 For the James family, see, in addition to GFK’s 1942 letter, Vogel, Sauce for the Gander, pp. 338–52; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, pp. 1–3; CKB interview, pp. 3–4, 7; FKW interview, p. 5; and Seegert, Oakwood Bay Centennial, pp. 42–44.
37 GFK interview by JEK, p. 1.
38 Ibid., pp. 2–3; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 11.
39 JKH, “Memoirs for Two,” pp. 19–20.
40 GFK interview by JEK, pp. 16–17; GFK to KKK, November 5, 1912, JEK Papers.
41 GFK, “My Soldier,” March 1913, GFK Papers, 183:6.
42 GFK, Memoirs, I, 3–5; GFK interview by JEK, pp. 17–18. After George mentioned the Juneau Park fairies in his memoirs, his irreverent cousin Ted Vogel pointed out that the park had been cited in the Milwaukee newspapers for harboring “fairies” of “a different life style.” Vogel, Sauce for the Gander, p. 369.
43 JKH, “Memoirs for Two,” pp. 11–12.
44 GFK interview by JEK, pp. 4–5; GFK to the sons of Charlie James, May 6, 1994, Eugene Hotchkiss Papers. The diary is in the JEK Papers, and the quotations that follow all come from it.
45 GFK interview by JEK, pp. 4–5.
46 GFK, Memoirs, I, 3; GFK 1916 diary, JEK Papers; GFK interview by JEK, p. 5. See also, for these and subsequent details about the school, Mitchell, Quarter Centenary of the Milwaukee State Normal School. The school building survives as Mitchell Hall, on the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee campus.
47 GFK interview, December 13, 1987, pp. 2–3; JKH interview, pp. 24–30; JKH, “Memoirs for Two,” pp. 13–14. Helen Hase Barnes, who played a fairy, sent the Rumpelstiltskin program to George seventy-seven years later, GFK Papers, 90:2. Another teacher at the school in George’s final year was Golda Mabovitz, later to be known as Golda Meir, but George did not recall having taken courses with her.
48 GFK interview by JEK, pp. 18–19, and CKB interview by JEK, pp. 14–15.
49 JKH interview by JEK, p. 16; CKB interview, p. 3; GFK to KKK, November 5, 1912; GFK Diary, April 8, 1916, JEK Papers.
50 GFK interview by JEK, pp. 19, 27–29; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 14; also GFK, “The Value of a St. John’s Education,” commencement address, St. John’s Military Academy, June 4, 1960, p. 3, GFK Papers, 260:10.
51 GFK interview by JEK, p. 29; GFK to JKH, September 24, 1919, GFK Papers, 23:10, and to Louise Wheeler Kennan, undated, JEK Papers; GFK, “Value of a St. John’s Education,” p. 4; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 12.
52 Ibid.
53 Ibid., pp. 12–14; also GFK interview by JEK, p. 26.
54 Ibid., p. 29.
55 GFK to JLG, May 13, 1996, JLG Papers; GFK to JKH, February 20, 1921, GFK Papers, 23:10.
56 GFK interview by JEK, pp. 20–21, 27; JKH interview, p. 14.
57 St. John’s Military Academy Yearbook, 1921, courtesy of Gary Richert, Director of Alumni Affairs, St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy. See also KWK interview, p. 7, and GFK interview, December 13, 1987, p. 5.
TWO • PRINCETON: 1921–1925
1 Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, p. 36.
2 Ibid., pp. 53–54; GFK, Memoirs, I, 9.
3 Ibid., pp. 10–11, 13, 15.
4 GFK to JKH, September 28, 1921, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK, Memoirs, I, 9. For the tutoring schools and the honor code, see Axtell, Making of Princeton University, pp. 113, 181–82, 234.
5 GFK to JKH, October 30, 1921, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK, Memoirs, I, 17.
6 GFK to JKH, November 24, 1921, GFK Papers, 23:10.
7 Ibid.; GFK interview by JEK, p. 20; GFK interview, August 25, 1982, p. 1; JKH interview, pp. 8–9; GFK, Memoirs, I, 10–11.
8 GFK interview, August 25, 1982, p. 1; JKH interview by JEK, p. 5; GFK interview by JEK; JKH interview, p. 13.
9 GFK to JKH, March 4, 8, and May 3, 1922, GFK Papers, 23:10.
10 GFK to JKH, April 1, May 13 and 20, 1922, ibid.
11 GFK interview by JEK, pp. 13–14; FKW interview, pp. 8–9.
12 GFK interview, December 13, 1987, p. 4; Axtell, Making of Princeton University, pp. 6–11, 115–19.
13 Mary Bundy interview, December 6, 1987, p. 4; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 16. See also GFK interview by JEK, p. 21.
14 GFK to JKH, October 4, 1922 [misdated 1921], GFK Papers, 23:10; Axtell, Making of Princeton University, pp. 359–68.
15 GFK to JKH, November 1, 1922, GFK Papers, 23:10.
16 Quoted in Axtell, Making of Princeton University, p. 309. Axtell discusses the history of the clubs at pp. 291–309.
17 GFK, Memoirs, I, 11; GFK interview, December 13, 1987, p. 6; GFK to JKH, undated but probably April 1923, GFK Papers, 23:10. Key and Seal, long since defunct as a club, is now Adlai Stevenson Hall. While teaching at Princeton in 1987, I took Kennan to dinner there, the first time he had set foot in the place since 1924.
18 GFK to JKH, April 11, 1923, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK interview, December 13, 1987, p. 6; GFK Diary, July 20 and 21, 1924, JEK Papers.
19 GFK to KKK, October 20, 1924, GFK Papers, 53:7; GFK interview, December 13, 1987, p. 6.
20 GFK, Memoirs, I, 11–12; GFK interview, December 13, 1987, p. 4; GFK to JKH, April 11, 1923, GFK Papers, 23:10.
21 Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, p. 19.
22 GFK to JKH, March 4, 1922, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK, Memoirs, I, 14; GFK to KKK, May 26, 1922, and JKH, October 4, 1922 [misdated 1921], GFK Papers, 53:5.
23 GFK, Memoirs, I, 15.
24 Ibid., p. 13; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 15; GFK to JKH, October 4, 1922 [misdated 1921], GFK Papers, 23:10; Axtell, Making of Princeton University, p. 223.
25 GFK, Memoirs, I, 16; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, pp. 15–16.
26 GFK Diary, April 30 and May 4, 1924, JEK Papers; GFK, Memoirs, I, 14; GFK interview, September 8, 1983, p. 10.
27 GFK Diary, May 1, 3, 9, 20, 1924, JEK Papers; GFK to KKK, October 8, 1924, GFK Papers, 53:7; GFK to JKH, undated but later marked “1924,” ibid., 23:10; GFK, Memoirs, I, 16. Clio
, with Whig, were venerable Princeton debating societies.
28 GFK to JKH, February 28, May 18 and 25, 1923, GFK Papers, 23:10.
29 Ibid.
30 GFK to JKH, November 1, 10, and December 6, 1922, ibid.
31 Ibid.
32 GFK to JKH, May 18, 1923, GFK Papers, 23:10.
33 GFK Diary, May 24, 1924. The passport, dated June 2, 1924, is ibid.
34 GFK, Memoirs, I, 12–13; GFK Diary, May 12, 1924, JEK Papers. The Key and Seal roster for 1925, showing George as an active member and Nick as having left, is in the Princeton Bric-a-Brac for that year, copy courtesy of Tad Bennicoff, Special Collections Assistant, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University.
35 GFK European trip diary, June 19–25, 1924, GFK Papers, 230:16.
36 Ibid., June 26–July 1, 1924.
37 Ibid., July 2–16, 1924.
38 Ibid., July 17–26, 1924.
39 Ibid., July 27–29, 1924.
40 Ibid., July 30–August 23, 1924.
41 Ibid., August 23–15, 1924; CKB interview, p. 8.
42 GFK to JKH, March 8, 1922, GFK Papers, 23:10; JKH interview, p. 23; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 5; KWK interview, p. 4; GFK Diary, May 9, 1924, JEK Papers.
43 GFK to JKH, incorrectly marked “1924,” and May 1, 1923, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK, Memoirs, I, 17–18; JKH interview, p. 20; KWK interview, p. 7.
44 GFK European trip diary, August 4, 1924, GFK Papers, 230:16.
45 GFK to KKK, October 20, 1924, ibid., 53:7; GFK European trip diary, July 25, 1924, ibid., 230:16. This Harriman was the railroad magnate E. H. Harriman, father of W. Averell Harriman, under whom George served in the U.S. embassy in Moscow during World War II.
46 GFK to KKK, October 20, 1924, GFK Papers, 53:7; GFK European trip diary, July 30, 1924, GFK Papers, 230:16.
47 GFK, Memoirs, I, 17; GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 9; GFK to KKK, January 19, 1925 [misdated 1924], GFK Papers, 53:7.
48 GFK, Memoirs, I, 17; Joseph C. Green to GFK, October 25, 1925, Philip A. Brown to GFK, November 27, 1925, both in JEK Papers.
49 GFK commencement address, Dartmouth College, June 11, 1950, GFK Papers, 299:40; GFK, Memoirs, I, 15, 18; Nassau Herald, June 15, 1925, p. 227. I am indebted to Daniel J. Linke, University Archivist and Curator of Public Policy Papers at Princeton, for providing me with a copy of Kennan’s academic transcript.
50 GFK, Memoirs, I, 16. The chameleon image comes from Axtell, Making of Princeton University, p. 111.
THREE ● THE FOREIGN SERVICE: 1925–1931
1 GFK interview by JEK, p. 24, JEK Papers; Heinrichs, American Ambassador, pp. 95–98; Weil, Pretty Good Club, pp. 46–47.
2 GFK interview by JEK, p. 24; GFK to JKH, December 3, 1925, GFK Papers, 23:10. See also, on the Crawford School, Bohlen, Witness to History, p. 5.
3 GFK interview by JEK, pp. 23–24; GFK to JKH, October 28, 1925, GFK Papers, 23:10.
4 GFK interview by JEK, p. 24; GFK, Memoirs, I, 18.
5 Joseph C. Grew to GFK, September 9, 1926, DSR-DF 1910–29, Box 548, 123 K36/orig.; GFK draft speech (unused) to Princeton alumni, February 5, 1953, GFK Papers, 252:11; GFK, Memoirs, I, 19–20; GFK poem copied in diary for January 18, 1930, GFK Papers, 230:20; GFK interview by JEK, p. 25.
6 GFK, Memoirs, I, 20–21.
7 GFK Diary, July 4, 1927.
8 Ibid., May 20, 1927.
9 GFK, Memoirs, I, 13.
10 Ibid., pp. 20–21.
11 GFK Diary, May 16 and 26, 1927.
12 Ibid., May 24, 1927.
13 Ibid., July 14, 1927.
14 Ibid., October 30 and November 3, 1927.
15 Ibid., September 10, October 9, 10, 30, November 5 and 28, 1927.
16 Ibid., November 7, 1927. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 22; and GFK, Sketches from a Life, p. 4, where he prints this passage but edits out the word “Jewish.”
17 GFK Diary, November 1 and 30, 1927.
18 GFK, Memoirs, I, 20; GFK Diary, November 12, 1927; GFK to Department of State, November 22, 1927, DSR-DF 1910–29, Box 548, 123K36/19. See also GFK, Sketches from a Life, pp. 5–6.
19 EJN to the Foreign Service Personnel Board, December 7, 1927, DSR-DF 1910–29, Box 548, 123K36/19; State Department to GFK, December 9, 1927, ibid.; GFK to State Department, January 6 and April 24, 1928, ibid., Box 1476, 123K36/22 and 25; Cassels, “‘Mr. X’ Goes to Moscow,” p. 88; GFK, Memoirs, I, 23.
20 Ibid.
21 GFK interview by JEK, p. 26; GFK to JKH, September 3, 1928, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK interview, December 13, 1987, p. 7.
22 Eleanor Lake to John Lamberton Harper, July 12, 1990, and June 1991, copies provided by Professor Harper. Eleanor’s son, Anthony Lake, would serve during the Carter administration as director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, the position Kennan was the first to fill when the staff was created in 1947.
23 GFK interview, December 13, 1987, pp. 7–8; JKH interview, p. 16. Eleanor Lake, in her July 12, 1990, letter cited above, says that her mother destroyed all of George’s letters to her.
24 GFK to JKH, September 3, 1928, GFK Papers, 23:10.
25 GFK Diary, March 26, 1928.
26 See, for example, entries for December 4, 1927, and March 17, 1928, ibid. George mentions “Peck”—prob-ably Howard F. Peckworth, who graduated from Princeton a year after he did—as his only other confidant in a letter to Jeanette, October 20, 1928, GFK Papers, 23:10, but adds that they have the “sensible” arrangement of corresponding just once a year.
27 GFK, Memoirs, I, 23; Wilbur J. Carr to GFK, March 29, 1928, DSR-DF 1910–29, Box 548, 123K36/25.
28 Saul, War and Revolution, pp. 318–19, 434, 437–40. The Colby note, dated August 10, 1920, is in FRUS: 1920, III, 463–68.
29 Gaddis, Russia, the Soviet Union, and the United States, pp. 98–104.
30 GFK, Memoirs, I, 23. See also DeSantis, Diplomacy of Silence, pp. 27–29; and Engerman, Modernization from the Other Shore, pp. 246–47.
31 GFK, Memoirs, I, 18–19, 24–25; GFK Diary, April 16, 1928.
32 Ibid., April 16, 18, May 6, 1928.
33 Ibid., April 16, May 6, 1928.
34 GFK to JKH, October 20, 1928, GFK Papers, 23:10.
35 GFK Diary, June 1928; GFK, Memoirs, I, 25–27.
36 GFK interview, August 24, 1982, p. 10; GFK, Memoirs, I, 28. See also, on the Riga legation, DeSantis, Diplomacy of Silence, pp. 30–31; Engerman, Modernization from the Other Shore, pp. 247–50; and, for an argument about the lasting influence of service in Riga for American Soviet specialists, Yergin, Shattered Peace.
37 GFK interview, August 24, 1982, pp. 10–11; GFK Diary, July 28–29, September 22, November 4, 1929.
38 GFK Diary, September 4, 6, 1929; GFK, Memoirs, I, 27.
39 GFK Diary, August 5, 1928; GFK, Memoirs, I, 27.
40 Ibid., pp. 28–30; T. W. Wilson report on the American legation in Riga, Latvia, February 20, 1929, Department of State, Inspection Reports, 1906–39, Box 128, National Archives.
41 GFK Diary, January 20, 1929.
42 Ibid.; GFK interviews, August 24, 1982, pp. 10, 16, and August 25, 1982, p. 3.
43 “Report of Consul Carlson on Mr. George F. Kennan,” enclosed in F. W. B. Coleman to the State Department, May 6, 1929, DSR-DF 1910–29, 123K36/49; Wilbur J. Carr to GFK, July 18, 1929, ibid., 123K36/58.
44 GFK Diary, April 20, 1929.
45 Carr to GFK, July 18, 1929, DSR-DF 1910–29, 123K36/58; Raymond H. Geist to the State Department, August 4, 1930, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/81; GFK, Memoirs, I, 31–33.
46 Richie, Faust’s Metropolis, pp. 325, 331; GFK, Memoirs, I, 34–35.
47 GFK interview, December 13, 1987, p. 8; GFK to JKH, March 8, 1930, GFK Papers, 23:10.
48 GFK Diary, January 26, 1930. See also, for the Femina, Richie, Faust’s Metropolis, pp. 459–60.
49 GFK to JKH, March 8 and 28, 1930, GFK Papers, 23:10.
50 GFK Diary, January 19, 1930.
51 GFK to JKH, January 3 and April 28, 1931, GFK Papers, 23:10;
GFK, Memoirs, I, 34.
52 GFK interview, December 13, 1987, pp. 9–10.
53 GFK to Ferris, January 12, 1931, JEK Papers.
54 GFK Diary, May 30, 1931.
55 GFK to JKH, November 16, 1930, January 3, April 18 and 28, 1931, GFK Papers, 23:10.
56 GFK to State Department, July 29, 1931, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/99.
FOUR ● MARRIAGE—AND MOSCOW: 1931–1933
1 ASK telegram to GFK, August 5, 1931, JEK Papers; GFK Diary, included in entry for May 7, 1932; GFK to JKH, no date, GFK Papers, 23:10. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 37.
2 ASK to GFK, three undated letters, JEK Papers.
3 ASK interview, August 26, 1982, p. 1; Alice Green certificate, Cours des Billettes, Paris, June 20, 1928, JEK Papers. The birth date is from a baptismal certificate attached to the American Consular Service Certificate of Marriage, ibid.
4 ASK interview, August 26, 1982, pp. 3–4; ASK Diary and Memorandum Book for 1931, JEK Papers.
5 ASK to GFK, undated, JEK Papers; GFK Diary, May 7, 1932; GFK, Memoirs, I, 38–39; ASK interview, August 26, 1982, p. 4.
6 GFK, Memoirs, I, 39–40; ASK Diary, September 11, 1931, JEK Papers; GFK to JKH, October 18, 1931, GFK Papers, 23:10. See also GFK Diary, October 3, 1932.
7 GFK, Memoirs, I, 40; ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 2.
8 Ibid., p. 8; GFK to Jeanette and Gene Hotchkiss, November 1, 1931, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK, Memoirs, I, 40–41.
9 GFK to JKH, October 18, 1931, GFK Papers, 23:10. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 40.
10 ASK to JKH, January 28, 1932, JEK Papers; GFK, Memoirs, I, 41.
11 ASK to GFK, undated, JEK Papers; CKB interview, p. 9; ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 5.
12 KKK to GFK, January 14, 1932, JEK Papers. See also JKH interview, pp. 7–9, and KWK interview, pp. 2–3.
13 Eugene Hotchkiss to GFK, March 20, 1932, JEK Papers; JKH to JLG, July 8, 1983, JLG Papers. For more on the “match king,” see Economist 385 (December 22, 2007), 115–17.
14 JKH interview, p. 10; GFK to JKH, June 24, 1932, and December 25, 1935, GFK Papers, 23:10; ASK interviews, August 26, 1982, p. 5, and December 14, 1987, p. 8; JEK to JLG, April 4, 2008, JLG Papers.
15 GFK Diary, May 29, 1932.
16 Ibid., June 13, 1932.
17 Ibid., March 24, 1932; GFK and ASK interview, December 13, 1987, pp. 13–15.
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