George F. Kennan : an American life

by John Lewis Gaddis

  18 GFK Diary, June 14, 1932.

  19 Ibid., January 1933, otherwise undated portion titled “Pocket Notebook.”

  20 GFK Diary, April 7, July 13, August 4, 1932.

  21 “Memorandum for the Minister,” August 19, 1932, enclosed in dispatch #650 from Robert F. Skinner to the State Department, DSR-DF 1930-39, 861.5017 Living Conditions/510; GFK to JLG, February 12, 2001, JLG Papers. I am indebted to David C. Engerman for bringing this document to my attention. His own evaluation of it is in his book Modernization from the Other Shore, pp. 254–55.

  22 GFK, Memoirs, I, 28–30; T. W. Wilson report on the American legation in Riga, Latvia, February 20, 1929, section III, Department of State, Inspection Reports, 1906–39, Box 128.

  23 ASK to GFK, November 8, 1932, JEK Papers.

  24 For the pressures leading to recognition, see Saul, Friends or Foes?, pp. 254–90; and, for the State Department perspective, Henderson, Question of Trust, pp. 213–29.

  25 GFK, Memoirs, I, 41; ASK to JKH, February 8, 1933, JEK Papers.

  26 GFK Diary, January 1933, otherwise undated portion titled “Personal Notebook”; GFK to JKH, March 21, 1933, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  27 GFK to JKH, May 1 and June 3, 1933, ibid.

  28 Skinner to State Department, September 10, 1932, enclosing GFK memorandum on “The Gold and Foreign Currency Accounts of the Russian Government,” and Castle to Skinner, December 6, 1932, DSR-DF 1930–39, 851.51/2539; Skinner to GFK, ibid., 123K36/128. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 49–52, 58.

  29 KKK to GFK, January 29, 1933, and ASK to JKH, August 4, 1933, JEK Papers; Cole to State Department, September 23, 1933, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/134.

  30 Henderson interview, September 25, 1982, p. 1; J. V. A. MacMurray to State Department, January 9, 1934, DSR-DF, 123K36/151. See also, for similar speculation on Kennan’s motives for returning, Isaacson and Thomas, Wise Men, pp. 155–57.

  31 ASK interview, August 26, 1982, p. 5; GFK to JKH, October 26, 1933, GFK Papers, 23:10; JKH to GFK, November 2 and 5, 1933, JEK Papers; “Daughter-in-Law Greeted at Tea,” Milwaukee Journal, November 4, 1933, clipping in JKH Scrapbook.

  32 GFK to JKH, December 14, 1933, KKK to GFK, November 24, 1933, JEK Papers.

  33 GFK, “Introduction” [to Bullitt, For the President], pp. v–vi. For Bullitt, see Brownell and Billings, So Close to Greatness, and Cassella-Blackburn, The Donkey, the Carrot, and the Club. The Wilson biography did not appear until shortly before Bullitt’s death in 1967.

  34 GFK unpublished 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 1, GFK Papers, 240:2; GFK to family, December 2, 1933, JEK Papers.

  35 ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 15; GFK, “Introduction,” p. xv.

  36 GFK to JKH, January 6, 1934 [misdated 1933], JEK papers.

  37 Ibid., GFK to Charles James, July 29, 1934, GFK Papers, 22:4; GFK to JKH, January 25, 1934, ibid., 23:10. The newspaper photos are in a family album in the JEK Papers. See also GFK, Memoirs, II, 119–20.

  38 GFK to JKH, December 14, 1933, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  39 GFK to JKH, January 6, 1934 [misdated 1933], ibid.; GFK, Memoirs, I, 59–60.

  40 GFK to Bullitt, December 27, 1933, Bullitt Papers, 17:5; Bullitt to Roosevelt, January 1, 1934, in Bullitt, For the President, p. 65.

  FIVE ● THE ORIGINS OF SOVIET-AMERICAN RELATIONS, 1933–1936

  1 GFK to ASK, December 29, 1933, JEK Papers.

  2 Bullitt to State Department, December 16, 1933, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/141; Wilbur J. Carr to William Phillips, December 20, 1933, ibid., 124.61/54; Merrill to Carr, December 24, 1933, ibid., 124.611/53; Bullitt to Roosevelt, Phillips, and R. Walton Moore, December 24, 1933, ibid., 124.611/55; Phillips to Bullitt, December 27, 1933, ibid., 124.611/53.

  3 ASK to GFK, January 2, 1934, JEK Papers; GFK Moscow Diary, January 15, 1934, DSR-DF1930–39, 124.616/113.

  4 GFK, Memoirs, I, 59; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 8–9, GFK Papers, 240:2; Bullitt to Roosevelt, January 1, 1934, in Bullitt, For the President, p. 69. The National still exists—in a different era—as Le Royal Meridien National. See also, for the history of Spaso House and the Mokhovaya, http://moscow.usembassygov/embassy/embassy.php?record_id=spaso.

  5 Thayer, Bears in the Caviar, p. 75; GFK, Memoirs, I, 59.

  6 GFK to Charles James, July 29, 1934, Douglas James Papers; Keith Merrill telephone conversation with GFK, January 9, 1934, DSR-DF 1930–39, 124.611/94 [this copy undated, but date determined from “Mr. Kennan’s Moscow Diary, 1934,” ibid., 124.616/113]; Thayer, Bears in the Caviar, p. 85; GFK to Rebecca Matlock, October 29, 1987, GFK Papers, 27:18; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 11, GFK Papers, 240:2. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 63–64; and Peter Bridges, “George Kennan Reminisces About Moscow in 1933–1937,” Diplomacy and Statecraft 17 (June 2006), 283–93.

  7 Bullitt to Roosevelt, April 13, 1934, in Bullitt, For the President, p. 83.

  8 Henderson, Question of Trust, pp. 262, 301–5; GFK, Memoirs, I, 61–63.

  9 Henderson, Question of Trust, p. 303; ASK interviews, August 26, 1982, p. 7, and December 14, 1987, p. 4; Durbrow interview, September 24, 1982, p. 1. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 63–64; and Thayer, Bears in the Caviar, pp. 85–86.

  10 GFK to JKH, April 15 and May 7, 1934, JEK Papers.

  11 GFK to JKH, May 19, 1934, ibid.

  12 Bullitt to State Department, May 9, 1934, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/164. See also Thayer, Bears in the Caviar, pp. 85–86.

  13 Robert F. Kelley memorandum, June 18, 1934, ibid.; GFK to JKH, June 24, 1934, JEK Papers.

  14 GFK to Bullitt, July 6, 1934, Bullitt Papers, 19:8; GFK to Charles James, July 29, 1934, GFK Papers, 24:4.

  15 JKH interview, p. 24; GFK to JKH, June 7, 1933, JEK Papers; GFK Diary, April 8, 1934.

  16 GFK Diary, September 18, 1934, ibid.

  17 GFK, “Runo—An Island Relic of Medieval Sweden,” Canadian Geographical Journal 11 (November 1935), 255–64. See also JKH to GFK, December 2, 1932, JEK Papers; and C. Ben Wright, “George F. Kennan, Scholar-Diplomat: 1926–1946,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1972, pp. 36–37.

  18 GFK, Memoirs, I, 21, 49; Carr to Skinner, December 27, 1934, enclosing comments from Green, Kelley, and Edward C. Wynne, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/123.

  19 Mrs. George Kennan to JKH, June 7 and 27, 1934, JEK Papers; GFK to JKH, July 1, 1934, ibid. For George A. Frost, see Travis, George Kennan and the American-Russian Relationship, pp. 112, 123–24.

  20 GFK to JKH, August 1, 1934, JEK Papers.

  21 Bullitt to GFK, July 20, 1934, Bullitt Papers, 19:8; Bullitt to R. Walton Moore, September 22, 1934, ibid., T12:13.

  22 GFK to JKH, December 2, 1934, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 17, ibid., 240:2.

  23 ASK to JKH, November 9, 1934, JEK Papers; ASK interview, August 26, 1982, p. 8.

  24 GFK Diary, September 3, 1934. Compare with GFK’s “Memorandum for the Minister,” August 19, 1932, enclosed in dispatch #650 from the Riga Legation to the Department of State, discussed in Chapter Four.

  25 ASK to Louise Wheeler, October 12, 1934, and JKH, November 9, 1934, JEK Papers; KWK to JLG, January 9, 1983, JLG Papers; GFK to JKH, November 24, 1934, GFK Papers, 23:10; and KWK interview, pp. 11–13.

  26 ASK to JKH, November 9, 1934, JEK Papers; GFK to JKH, December 2, 1934, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  27 GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 22–23, GFK Papers, 240:2; ASK to JKH, December 21, 1934, JEK Papers; ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 5. See also Thayer, Bears in the Caviar, pp. 106–14.

  28 Wiley to Bullitt, December 27, 1934, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/174; Wiley to Bullitt, January 2, 1935, Bullitt Papers, 21:5; Bullitt to Wiley, January 7, 1934, ibid., T14:2; Bullitt to GFK, January 7, 1934, ibid., 21:1; GFK to JKH, December 31, 1934, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  29 GFK to JKH, December 31, 1934, January 20, 1935, and January 6, 1937 [misdated 1936], ibid.; GFK to Bullitt, February 12, 1935, Bullitt Papers, 21:1; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 25–27, GFK Papers, 240:2.
r />   30 GFK to JKH, December 31, 1934, and February 10, 1935, ibid., 23:10.

  31 GFK interviews, August 25, 1982, p. 1, and December 13, 1987, pp. 12–13; GFK Diary, February 12 and April 11, 1935; GFK to Bullitt, February 12, 1935, Bullitt Papers, 21:1; Henderson interview, September 25, 1982, p. 4. I have slightly edited the diary passage.

  32 GFK Diary, February 4, 6, 14, 15, 1935; GFK to JKH, February 10, 1935, ibid., 23:10. The letter to Follmer is quoted in the diary entry for February 6.

  33 GFK to JKH, March 6 and April 29, 1935, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK Diary, April 8, 1935; GFK to ASK, April 20, 1935, JEK Papers.

  34 GFK Diary, February 15, 1935; GFK to Bullitt, February 12, 1935, Bullitt Papers, 21:1.

  35 Bullitt to R. Walton Moore, May 11, 1935, ibid., T12:13; GFK to Bullitt, April 15, 1935, ibid., 21:1; Bullitt to Thomas D. White, June 6, 1935, ibid., 21:5; ASK to JKH, May 31, 1935, JEK Papers.

  36 GFK Diary, April 20, 1935; GFK to JKH, June 28, July 30, September 11 and 30, 1935, ibid., 23:10; GFK to Bullitt, November 4, 1935, Bullitt Papers, 21:1.

  37 GFK, Memoirs, I, 64; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 14–15, GFK Papers, 240:2.

  38 GFK to JKH, November 17, 1935, ibid., 23:10. For a recent but still inconclusive account of the Kirov murder, see Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin: At the Court of the Red Tsar (New York: Knopf, 2004), pp. 143–52.

  39 GFK to JKH, December 25, 1935, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK to Charles James, December 16, 1935, ibid., 24:4; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 36–38, ibid., 240:2.

  40 Ibid., pp. 41–44; Bullitt fitness report on GFK, August 1, 1936, Bullitt Papers, T12:21. See also, for a detailed account of this trip, GFK, Sketches from a Life, pp. 27–33.

  41 Bullitt to State Department, April 20, 1936, in FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, p. 292. See also Bullitt, For the President, pp. 134–35, and Henderson, Question of Trust, pp. 319–85, 407–8.

  42 GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 13–14, 23–24, 38–40, GFK Papers, 240:2; GFK, Memoirs, I, 68–70. The Neill Brown observations were included in Bullitt to State Department, March 4, 1936, in FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, pp. 289–91. GFK described their discovery in a lecture to the Canadian National Defence College on May 31, 1948, GFK Papers, 299:9.

  43 Bullitt to State Department, April 20, 1936, in FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, p. 296.

  44 See “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” Foreign Affairs 25 (July 1947), especially pp. 580–82.

  45 Bullitt fitness report on GFK, August 1, 1936, Bullitt Papers, T12:21.

  46 GFK to Bullitt, June 9, 1936, ibid., and September 4, 1936, ibid., 20:17.

  SIX ● REDISCOVERING AMERICA: 1936–1938

  1 GFK to State Department, January 9, 1936, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/213.

  2 ASK to JKH, November 2, 1935, JEK Papers; GFK 1938 memoir “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 41, GFK Papers, 240:2; GFK to JKH, December 25, 1935, ibid., 23:10.

  3 GFK to Bullitt, June 9, 1936, Bullitt Papers, T12:21.

  4 GFK to JKH, May 13, 1935, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  5 GFK, Memoirs, I, 77.

  6 Ibid.; GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 47–50, GFK Papers, 240:2; also GFK to JKH, September 8, 1936, ibid., 23:10.

  7 Ibid.; J. Klahr Huddle to State Department, April 17, 1937, Department of State, Inspection Reports on Foreign Service Posts, 1906–39, Box 102.

  8 GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 66, GFK Papers, 240:2; R. Walton Moore to Bullitt, March 19, 1936, Bullitt Papers, T12:15. The information on embassy productivity is in the Huddle inspection report, April 17, 1937.

  9 GFK to JKH, December 6, 1936, GFK Papers, 23:10; ASK to JKH, January 2, 1937, JEK Papers; Thayer, Bears in the Caviar, pp. 132, 135.

  10 ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 6; GFK to JKH, September 8, 1936, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK Diary, May 30, 1937.

  11 GFK to JKH, December 6, 1936, GFK Papers, 23:10; also ASK interview, December 14, 1987, p. 19.

  12 Henderson, Question of Trust, p. 414; Davies, Mission to Moscow, p. xviii; GFK, Memoirs, I, 82. See also, on Davies’s background, MacLean, Joseph E. Davies, pp. 7–22.

  13 Henderson interview, p. 3; Huddle inspection report, April 17, 1937.

  14 GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 67, GFK Papers, 240:2; GFK to JKH, February 17, 1937, ibid., 23:10; ASK to JKH, March 3, 1937, JEK Papers; GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” GFK Papers, 240:3; GFK to Eugene Hotchkiss, undated but March 1937, ibid., 23:10.

  15 ASK interview, September 8, 1983, p. 4; Davies to GFK, February 2, 1937, Davies Papers, Box 3; GFK, Memoirs, I, 82–83; Davies to State Department, February 17 and 18, 1937, DSR-DF 1930–39, 861.00/ 11675–76; Kelley to Hull, March 13, 1937, ibid., 861.00/11676. Davies’s February 18 dispatch forwarded Kennan’s report, “The Trial of Radek and Others,” dated February 13, 1937, subsequently published in FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, pp. 362–69. See also MacLean, Joseph E. Davies, pp. 28–30.

  16 GFK to Peter S. Bridges, September 20, 1963, GFK Papers, 57. See also GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 71–72, ibid., 240:2; Thayer, Bears in the Caviar, pp. 95–96; MacLean, Joseph E. Davies, p. 40; and, for official reports, Henderson to State Department, May 14 and August 10, 1937, in FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, pp. 441–42, 445–46.

  17 Davies to Kelley, February 10, 1937, Davies Papers, Box 3.

  18 GFK to JKH, December 6, 1936, and March 31, 1937, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  19 GFK 1938 memoir “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 68–70, ibid., 240:2; GFK, Memoirs, I, 85; Bullitt to R. Walton Moore, June 15, 1937, Bullitt Papers, T12:16. For another version of the library story, see Bohlen, Witness to History, p. 41.

  20 Moore to Bullitt, June 26, 1937, Bullitt Papers, T12:16; GFK, Memoirs, I, 84–85; also MacLean, Joseph E. Davies, pp. 37–38.

  21 GFK, Memoirs, I, 82–83; GFK to Rebecca Matlock, October 29, 1987, GFK Papers, 27:18; GFK 1938 memoir “Fair Day Adieu,” p. 70, ibid., 240:2.

  22 ASK to JKH, June 24 and July 28, 1937, JEK Papers; Hull to GFK, August 13, 1937, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/246.

  23 Bullitt to Moore, June 15, 1937, Bullitt Papers, T12:16; Henderson to Bullitt, September 3, 1937, ibid., 22: 10; GFK to JKH, September 14, 1937, GFK Papers, 22:10; GFK to Hull, August 16, 1937, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/248. See also Henderson, Question of Trust, p. 397.

  24 GFK, Memoirs, I, 85; GFK Diary, October 17, 24, 25, 1937, and February 11, 1938; GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” GFK Papers, 240:3.

  25 GFK to JKH, November 3, 1937, ibid., 23:10; ASK to JKH, October 19 and December 20, 1937, JEK Papers; GFK to JKH, December 26, 1937, and February 8, 1938, GFK Papers, 23:10.

  26 GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” pp. 4, 15, GFK Papers, 240:3; GFK memorandum, “The Position of an American Ambassador in Moscow,” November 24, 1937, in FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, p. 446; GFK, Memoirs, I, 85–86; GFK and Edward Page, Jr., memorandum, “Comments on the Memorandum of Oral Conversation Left by the Soviet Ambassador,” July 19, 1938, in FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, p. 658; GFK memorandum, December 23, 1937, DSR-DF 1930–39, 711.61/628.

  27 GFK lecture, “Russia,” delivered at the Foreign Service School, May 20, 1938, GFK Papers, 298:1.

  28 Troyanovsky to Stalin (from Washington), June 20, 1938, and a second undated report (from Moscow), Presidential Archive of the Russian Federation, Fond 3, Opis 66, Delo 362, ll. 140–211, translation by Jeffrey Mankoff. The Davies dispatch is in FRUS: The Soviet Union, 1933–39, pp. 542–51.

  29 “Memoires of Dr. Frieda Por,” enclosed in a letter to GFK and ASK, June 12, 1977, GFK Papers, 39:5; ASK to Frieda Por (in German), July 25, 1938, JEK Papers. See also, on the Frieda Por emigration, GFK interview, December 13, 1987, pp. 11–12; and ASK to GFK, undated but summer 1938, JEK Papers.

  30 GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” pp. 17–19, GFK Papers, 240:3. GFK, Memoirs, I, 75–76, misdates this trip as 1936.

  31 GFK, Sketches from a Life,
pp. 36–44; also GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” GFK Papers, 240:3.

  32 GFK, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” Foreign Affairs 25 (July 1947), 582.

  33 GFK, “The Prerequisites: Notes on the Problems of the United States in 1938,” and “II. Government,” GFK Papers, 240:4.

  34 Mayers, George Kennan and the Dilemmas of U.S. Foreign Policy, p. 338n; GFK interview, January 30, 1991, p. 13. Wright, “George F. Kennan, Scholar-Diplomat,” pp. 133–34, catalogs the political incorrectness with succinct precision.

  35 Isaacson and Thomas, Wise Men, p. 172.

  36 See, for example, GFK, Around the Cragged Hill, pp. 232–49.

  37 GFK 1938 memoir, “Fair Day Adieu,” pp. 29–31, GFK Papers, 240:2. See also, on the global significance of the New Deal, Hamby, For the Survival of Democracy.

  38 GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” p. 9, ibid., 240:3.

  39 Ibid., pp. 1–2.

  40 Bohlen interview by Wright, September 29, 1970. I have edited this passage for clarity.

  41 GFK undated memoir, “Washington 1937–1938,” pp. 31–33, GFK Papers, Box 19R.

  SEVEN ● CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND GERMANY: 1938–1941

  1 GFK to Bullitt, August 15, 1938, Bullitt Papers, 4:12. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 86.

  2 GFK undated memoir, “Prague—Munich to Occupation, 1938–1939,” pp. 1–3, GFK Papers, 240:3. The Washington Post clippings, dated September 15, 1938, are in the JEK Papers.

  3 GFK undated memoir, “Prague—Munich to Occupation, 1938–1939,” pp. 3–4, GFK Papers, 240:3; State Department radiogram, September 24, 1938, DSR-DF 1930–39, 123K36/272, National Archives.

  4 GFK undated memoir, “Prague—Munich to Occupation, 1938–1939,” pp. 4–6, GFK Papers, 240:3.

  5 Ibid., pp. 7–9.

  6 GFK to Frieda Por (in German), October 15, 1938, JEK Papers; GFK personal notes, October 1938, in GFK, From Prague After Munich, pp. 3–4; GFK Diary, October 2, 1938.

  7 GFK, Memoirs, I, 90–92; GFK Diary, October 13, 1938. Gellhorn drew on her experiences in her first novel, A Stricken Field. There is an encounter with an apparently insensitive diplomat—although she makes him British—on pp. 162–65.