30 The full text, dated “September, 1944,” is in DSR-DF 1940–44, 861.00/2–1445, although the date stamp shows that it was not received in the department until February 1945. It also appears in GFK, Memoirs, I, 503–31; and excerpts were published in FRUS: 1944, IV, 902–14. GFK’s comments on the background of the paper are in a letter to R. Gordon Wasson, December 7, 1949, GFK Papers, 140:1; and in a note to Harriman’s aide, Robert Meiklejohn, attached to the copy in the Harry Hopkins Papers, Box 217, “1st Russia” folder. I am indebted to Vladimir Pechatnov for this last reference.
31 The actual figure, it is now clear, was closer to 27 million.
32 GFK, Memoirs, I, 230–31; GFK to Wasson, December 7, 1949, GFK Papers, 140:1. See also note 30.
33 GFK to JKH, January 25, 1945, GFK Papers, 28:10; Betty MacDonald, Egg and I (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1945).
34 GFK to Bohlen, January 26, 1945, Bohlen Papers, Box 1, “Personal Correspondence, 1944–46,” National Archives; Hessman interview, September 24, 1982, pp. 2–3.
35 Bohlen’s undated reply, together with his comments on the Kennan letter, are in Witness to History, pp. 174–77. See also ibid., pp. 208–9; Bohlen interview by Wright; and GFK interview, August 25, 1982, p. 8.
36 John and Patricia Davies interview, December 7, 1982, pp. 1–2, 12.
37 Sulzberger Diary, March 23, 1945, in Sulzberger, Long Row of Candles, p. 250; Mautner interview, p. 2; Roberts interview, p. 5; John Paton Davies interview, December 8, 1982, p. 1; Davies, Dragon by the Tail, p. 390.
38 Harriman to Hopkins, September 10, 1944, in FRUS: 1944, IV, 988; Harriman interview, p. 2. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 221.
39 GFK to Louis Fischer, October 4, 1954, GFK Papers, 13:8. Harriman’s memorandum, drafted on April 10, 1945, is quoted in Miscamble, From Roosevelt to Truman, p. 83.
40 JEK to JLG, April 7, 2008, JLG Papers.
41 Bohlen notes, Truman-Harriman conversation, April 20, 1945, in FRUS: 1945, V, 232–33.
42 Bohlen notes, Truman-Molotov conversation, April 23, 1945, ibid., pp. 256–58. See also Harriman and Abel, Special Envoy, pp. 453–54; and Miscamble, From Roosevelt to Truman, pp. 113–23.
43 Gaddis, United States and the Origins of the Cold War, pp. 205–15, 224–30; also MacLean, Joseph E. Davies, pp. 133–49.
44 GFK to State Department, April 20, 1945, Department of State, Record Group 84, Moscow Harriman Telegrams, Box 4, #111, OWI; GFK to State Department, April 23, 1945, ibid., Box 1, #23 China; GFK to State Department, April 27 and 28, 1945, ibid., Box 6, #155, Reparations Commission; GFK to State Department, April 30, 1945, ibid., Box 1, #8 Austria; GFK to Elbridge Durbrow, May 4, 1945, ibid., Box 5, #118 Poles; GFK to State Department, May 8, 1945, ibid., Box 6, #161A Rumania. See also Roberts, Dealing with Dictators , pp. 85–86.
45 GFK, Memoirs, I, 240–41. See also C. L. Sulzberger, “Moscow Goes Wild over Joyful News,” New York Times, May 10, 1945.
46 Bullitt to Roosevelt, January 29, 1943, in Bullitt, For the President, pp. 576–90; Forrestal to Homer Ferguson, May 14, 1945, in Millis, Forrestal Diaries, p. 57; Churchill to Truman, May 12, 1945, quoted in Gilbert, “Never Despair,” p. 7.
47 “Russia’s International Position at the Close of the War with Germany,” May 1945, in GFK, Memoirs, I, 532–46.
48 Ibid., pp. 247, 251, 293; GFK interview, January 30, 1991, p. 5.
49 GFK, Memoirs, I, 271. GFK’s first request probably came in a meeting with Foreign Ministry official Semyon K. Tsarapkin on July 6, 1944, at which he mentioned the elder Kennan’s Siberian connection, as well as his popularity with the Russian revolutionaries of that era. See Tsarapkin to Molotov, July 7, 1944, Russian Federation Foreign Policy Archive, Molotov Fond, Opis 6, Papka 46, Delo 610, L 46.
50 “Trip to Novosibirsk and Stalinsk, June, 1945,” GFK Papers, 231:13. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 271–75; GFK, Sketches from a Life, pp. 91–110. GFK’s postcard to JKH, dated June 18, 1945, is in the JEK Papers.
TEN ● A VERY LONG TELEGRAM: 1945–1946
1 GFK to JKH, June 6, 1945, GFK Papers, 23:10. The Finnish legation rental agreement is summarized in GFK to State Department, April 26, 1945, Department of State, Record Group 84, Moscow Harriman Telegrams Box 3, #74 Housing. Kennan’s promotion is confirmed in Julius C. Holmes to GFK, June 1, 1945, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder.
2 GFK interview, August 25, 1982, p. 9; Harriman interview, p. 1. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 293.
3 Kennan’s name appeared in The New York Times only twelve times from the beginning of 1940 through the end of 1945, in each case in connection with stories on other subjects.
4 GFK, Memoirs, I, 256.
5 Ibid., pp. 212–13. Robert Meiklejohn’s diary for June 5, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 11, contains a succinct summary of Kennan’s thinking at the time of the Hopkins visit.
6 Miscamble, From Roosevelt to Truman, pp. 125–71, provides a comprehensive account of Truman’s views and those of his key advisers during this period.
7 GFK to Byrnes, August 20, 1945, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder; GFK to Matthews, August 21, 1945, GFK Papers, 140:5. For Kennan’s objections to the Potsdam agreements, see GFK, Memoirs, I, 258–66.
8 Roberts interview, pp. 13–14; GFK to JKH, January 25, 1945, GFK Papers, 23:10; GFK to Charles E. Bohlen, January 26, 1945, Bohlen Papers, Box 1, “Personal Correspondence,” National Archives.
9 ASK to GFK, July 29 and September 4, 1945, JEK Papers.
10 GFK Diary, “Journey to Leningrad and Helsinki, September, 1945,” in GFK, Sketches from a Life, pp. 113–16. See also GFK, Memoirs, I, 275–78, 281–83.
11 An American diplomat with long service in Moscow admitted to me in the mid-1980s that he dreamed regularly of Helsinki, especially Stockmann’s Department Store.
12 GFK to Harriman, July 25, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 181.
13 GFK to State Department, July 11, 1945, Department of State, Record Group 84, Moscow Harriman Telegrams, Box 2, #35 Czechoslovakia; GFK to State Department, July 21, 1945, ibid., Box 5, #119 Poles; GFK to State Department, July 21, 1945, ibid., Box 5, #137 Press; GFK to Harriman, July 25, 1945, ibid., Box 6, #167 Russia; GFK to State Department, August 2, 1945, in FRUS: 1945, VIII, 624.
14 GFK to State Department, July 15, 1945, Department of State, Record Group 84, Moscow Harriman Telegrams, Box 6, #167 Russia; GFK to Harriman, July 26, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 181.
15 GFK, Memoirs, I, 279; GFK notes, Stalin-Harriman conversation, August 8, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 181.
16 GFK interview, September 7, 1983, p. 12; GFK to Harriman, September 30, 1945, in FRUS: 1945, V, 884n; GFK to Byrnes, September 30, 1945, ibid., pp. 885–86.
17 GFK, Memoirs, I, 275–78; Senator Claude Pepper notes on interview with Stalin, September 14, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 182. Kennan’s report on the meeting with the congressmen, sent to the State Department on September 15, 1945, is in FRUS: 1945, V, 881–84. For the origins of the “Russian loan” question, see Herring, Aid to Russia, pp. 144–78.
18 Transcript, Moscow embassy staff conference, October 10, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 183; GFK to Byrnes, October 4, 1945, in FRUS: 1945, V, 888–91; Byrnes to GFK, October 8, 1945, ibid., p. 888n.
19 Wilgress to the Ministry of External Affairs, Ottawa, November 14, 1945, Pearson to Norman Robertson, December 6, 1945, both in Record Group 25, Volume 5696, External Affairs Records, National Archives of Canada.
20 Unsigned memorandum, October 25, 1945, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder. See also Bohlen to Harriman, October 5, 1945, ibid.
21 Roberts interview, pp. 3, 6. See also Roberts, Dealing with Dictators, pp. 92–93.
22 GFK to Harriman, October 12, 1945, Harriman Papers, Box 183; Transcript, Moscow embassy staff conference, October 10, 1945, ibid.
23 Messer, End of an Alliance, pp. 135–48, provides a good account of Byrnes’s thinking. For the failure to consult Bevin, see Bullock, Ernest Bevin, pp. 198–99.
24 GFK Diary, Dece
mber 10, 1945.
25 Ibid., December 14, 1945.
26 Ibid., December 19, 1945. Underlining in the original.
27 GFK Diary, December 17, 1945.
28 GFK draft, “The United States and Russia,” winter 1946, in GFK, Memoirs, I, 560–65.
29 Wilgress to Norman Robertson, January 15, 1946, Record Group 25, Volume 5696, Ministry of External Affairs Records, National Archives of Canada. Emphasis added.
30 GFK to Durbrow, January 21, 1946, GFK Papers, 140:4.
31 Berlin interview, p. 1; Patricia Davies interview, December 7, 1982, p. 5; Davies, Dragon by the Tail, pp. 389–90.
32 Durbrow interview, p. 2; Henderson interview, pp. 3–4; Mautner interview, p. 1; Crawford interview by Wright, pp. 4, 22.
33 Hessman interview, p. 3; Mautner interview, pp. 1–2.
34 Roberts interview, p. 5; Berlin interview, pp. 26, 29.
35 Crawford interview by Wright, September 29, 1970, pp. 2, 23; Berlin interview, pp. 1, 3.
36 John and Patricia Davies interview, December 7, 1982, pp. 5–6; Berlin interview, p. 8.
37 John and Patricia Davies interview, December 7, 1982, pp. 9–10.
38 Ibid., pp. 7–8.
39 GFK to Bullitt, January 22, 1946, Bullitt Papers, 32:3.
40 GFK to State Department, January 2, 1946, Harriman Papers, Box 185. Kennan’s explanation of the circumstances surrounding the “long telegram” is in his Memoirs, I, 293. I myself have perpetuated these errors in several books and in far too many classroom lectures. I am grateful to Nicholas Thompson for actually counting the number of words in the “long telegram.”
41 GFK to State Department, February 8, 1946, in FRUS: 1946, VI, 693. The text of Stalin’s speech was printed in Vital Speeches of the Day 12 (March 1, 1946), 300–304.
42 GFK to State Department, February 12, 1946, in FRUS: 1946, VI, 694–96; GFK, Memoirs, I, 292–93.
43 Durbrow interview, p. 3. I have discussed the shifting Washington mood in United States and the Origins of the Cold War, pp. 282–302.
44 Durbrow interview, pp. 3–4; Byrnes to GFK, February 13, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, 861.00/2–1245.
45 GFK, Memoirs, I, 293; Harriman interview, pp. 5–6; Harriman to JLG, September 23, 1982, JLG Papers; Hessman interview, p. 4; Mautner interview, p. 2.
46 Durbrow interview, pp. 4–5; Matthews to GFK, February 25, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, 861.00/2-2246; Byrnes to GFK, February 27, 1946, ibid.
47 Harriman interview, pp. 5–6; GFK, Memoirs, I, 294–95. See also Harriman to Forrestal, February 26, 1946, Harriman Papers, Box 186; Millis, Forrestal Diaries, pp. 135–36; and Hoopes and Brinkley, Driven Patriot, pp. 270–73.
48 GFK to State Department, February 22, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, 861.00/2-2246. The “long telegram” also appears in FRUS: 1946, VI, 696–709.
49 GFK, Memoirs, I, 294–95.
ELEVEN ● A GRAND STRATEGIC EDUCATION: 1946
1 Lilienthal Diary, March 6, 1946, in Lilienthal, Journals of Lilienthal, II, 26.
2 Miscamble, Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, p. 27.
3 J. C. Donnelly minute, March 5, 1946, AN 587/1/45; British Foreign Office Records, FO 371/51606, National Archives, London.
4 Byrnes speech to the Overseas Press Club, February 28, 1946, Department of State Bulletin 14 (March 10, 1946), 355–58. See also, for the American policy shift as well as the background to Churchill’s speech, Harbutt, Iron Curtain, pp. 151–82.
5 H. Freeman Matthews to Robert Murphy, March 12, 1946, Murphy to Matthews, April 3, 1946, Robert Murphy Papers, Box 58 (courtesy of Christian Ostermann).
6 Donnelly minute, March 5, 1946.
7 “Looking Outward,” Time 47 (February 18, 1946), 29–30. The best account of the Bohlen-Robinson report is in Messer, “Paths Not Taken.” The first section of the report, completed in December 1945, is Diplomatic History 1 (Fall 1977), pp. 389–99, and the final draft version is in DSR-DF 1945–49, 711.61/21446, Box 3428. See also Ruddy, Cautious Diplomat, pp. 57–59.
8 Bohlen memorandum, March 13, 1946, Bohlen Papers, Box 4, “Memos (CEB) 1946” folder, National Archives.
9 Matthews to Murphy, March 12, 1946, Murphy Papers, Box 58; Norweb to GFK, March 25, 1946, GFK Papers, 140:4.
10 Roberts interview, March 15, 1993, pp. 4, 10–12. See also Roberts, Dealing with Dictators, pp. 107–9. The Roberts dispatches are published in Jensen, Origins of the Cold War, pp. 33–67.
11 GFK, “Commentary [on the Novikov Dispatch],” 540–41; GFK interview, December 13, 1995, p. 12; Kondrashov interview by Pechatnov, May 29, 1999. The Novikov dispatch is in Jensen, Origins of the Cold War, pp. 3–16. For a confirmation of Kennan’s guess about Soviet intelligence, see Pechatnov and Edmondson, “Russian Perspective,” in Levering et al., Debating the Origins of the Cold War, p. 116.
12 GFK to Bruce Hopper, April 17, 1946, GFK Papers, 140:4.
13 Ibid., GFK to Durbrow, March 7, 1946, Byrnes to GFK, March 11, 1946, Smith to GFK, March 12, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder.
14 GFK to Byrnes, March 13, 1946, GFK to Durbrow, March 15, 1946, ibid.
15 Durbrow interview, p. 5; GFK to Durbrow, April 2, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder.
16 Smith to Matthews, April 17, 1946, ibid.; GFK to Bohlen, April 19, 1946, ibid.
17 GFK to State Department, May 22, 1946, ibid.; ASK to Frieda Por, June 24, 1946, JEK Papers; Donald Russell to GFK, June 20, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder.
18 GFK to Smith, June 27, 1946, JEK Papers.
19 GFK, Memoirs, I, 307–8; also Earle, Makers of Modern Strategy.
20 GFK interview, September 7, 1983, pp. 11–13; also GFK, Nuclear Delusion, pp. xiv–xv.
21 GFK 1946 National War College notebook, pp. 5, 14–15, GFK Papers, 231:14; also Brodie, Absolute Weapon. The article in question was by Percy E. Corbett.
22 GFK National War College notebook, p. 22.
23 Ibid., pp. 20–21. See also Crane Brinton, Gordon A. Craig, and Felix Gilbert, “Jomini,” in Earle, Makers of Modern Strategy, pp. 77–92, especially p. 88. Significantly, a July 1946 Fortune article on the Foreign Service mentioned a group of its officers who “think in terms of ‘containing’ Russia by a series of firm stands on specific points: Iran, Trieste, and so on.” Kennan was mentioned separately—not in this context—as having written “shrewd and highly literate dispatches from Moscow; Byrnes calls him ‘by far the best reporter’ in the service.” “The U. S. Foreign Service,” Fortune 34 (July 1946), 81–86, 200–207.
24 GFK National War College notebook, pp. 23, 27. Clausewitz makes a cameo appearance in Tolstoy’s account of the Battle of Borodino. See War and Peace, p. 774.
25 GFK National War College notebook, pp. 23–27. For background on Rothfels, see Bassford, Clausewitz in English, pp. 185–86.
26 GFK interview, August 25, 1982, pp. 20–21.
27 Benton to Henderson and GFK, March 7, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, 861.00/2-2246, Box 6462; GFK to Smith, June 7, 1946, ibid., Moscow 1946, Box 106, 711 Russia.
28 GFK, Memoirs, I, 298–99; GFK to Smith, June 27, 1946, JEK Papers.
29 GFK interview, September 7, 1983, pp. 17–18. Kennan’s report, dated August 23, 1946, is to Francis H. Russell, chief of the State Department’s Division of Public Liaison, GFK Papers, 298:11. The Soviet summary is in Russian Federation Foreign Policy Archive, Opis 30, Papka 187, Delo 81, List 111-25. The FBI reports are from Kennan’s file, 62-81548, obtained August 11, 2000, under Freedom of Information/Privacy Act request 410933/190-HQ1312163, copies in GFK Papers, 181:3–6.
30 GFK, Memoirs, I, 299; GFK to Acheson, October 8, 1946, Acheson Papers, Box 27, “State Department Under Secretary Correspondence, 1945–47” folder, Truman Library; Acheson to GFK, October 11, 1946, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder.
31 Hill, “Opening Address to the First Class,” September 3, 1946, National War College Archives, Washington, D.C. (courtesy of Michael Schmidt
); “New War College Enters Atomic Era,” New York Times, September 4, 1946. See also Harlow and Maerz, Measures Short of War, p. xiv.
32 GFK address to Princeton University Bicentennial Conference on University Education and the Public Service, November 13–14, 1946, GFK Papers, 251:6; GFK, Memoirs, I, 306.
33 Transcript, GFK National War College lecture and discussion, September 16, 1946, GFK Papers, 298:12. The lecture, though not the record of the question period, is published in Harlow and Maerz, Measures Short of War, pp. 3–17.
34 GFK to KWK, October 5, 1946, JEK Papers; GFK, Memoirs, I, 307; Hessman interview, pp. 5–6.
35 GFK, Memoirs, I, 307.
36 Transcript, Department of State off-the-record briefing by GFK and Llewellyn Thompson, September 17, 1946, GFK Papers, 298:13. For the Wallace controversy, see Blum, Price of Vision, pp. 612–32, 661–69.
37 GFK lecture, “‘Trust’ as a Factor in International Relations,” Yale University Institute of International Studies, New Haven, Conn., October 1, 1946, GFK Papers, 298:15. See also Chekhov, “The New Villa,” in Ford, Essential Tales of Chekhov, p. 303.
38 GFK lecture, “Russia,” Naval War College, Newport, R.I., GFK Papers, 298:14. Kennan’s thinking on naval strategy may well have been influenced by Margaret Tuttle Sprout’s essay on Mahan in Earle, Makers of Modern Strategy, especially pp. 433–34.
39 I am indebted, on this point, to my Yale colleague Charles Hill, whose Grand Strategies brilliantly illustrates it.
40 Edward A. Dow, Jr., notes, Canadian–United States Defense Conversations, Ottawa, December 16 and 17, 1946, in FRUS: 1946, V, 70.
41 GFK to JKH, December 25, 1946, JEK Papers. President Truman had in fact approved Kennan’s appointment to the rank of career minister on November 25. Byrnes to GFK, January 6, 1947, DSR-DF 1945–49, Box 786, “123 Kennan” folder.
42 GFK to Waldemar J. Gallman, March 14, 1947, GFK Papers, 140:3; GFK, Memoirs, I, 304–5.
43 ASK to Frieda Por, November 10, 1946, and February 10, 1947; GFK to Walter Bedell Smith, June 27, 1946; GFK to KWK, October 5, 1946, all in JEK Papers.
44 GFK to KWK, December 31, 1946 [misdated January 31], ibid.; ASK interview, August 26, 1982, p. 13. The fall lectures are listed in Lecture Program, 1946–1956, National War College Archives (courtesy of Michael Schmidt).
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