George F. Kennan : an American life
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36 GFK Reith Lecture on “The Military Problem,” December 2, 1957, in GFK, Russia, the Atom and the West, pp. 64–65.
37 Von Oppen interview, p. 2.
38 Dulles news conference, December 10, 1957, in New York Times, December 11, 1957.
39 C. Burke Elbrick memorandum, Eisenhower-Adenauer conversation, December 17, 1957, in FRUS: 1955–57, XXVI, 346–7.
40 Transcript, BBC symposium, December 20, 1957, GFK Papers, 257:7; GFK Diary, December 22, 1957. For Kennan’s earlier pronouncements on “trust,” see Chapter Eleven, above.
41 GFK Diary, December 28, 1957–January 5, 1958.
42 Acheson statement in The New York Times, January 12, 1958.
43 Schlesinger interview, December 17, 1983, p. 2; Christopher Emmet to Acheson, December 24, 1957, Acheson to Emmet, December 30, 1957, Acheson Papers, 9:123, Yale University. See also Thompson, Hawk and the Dove, p. 168, and, on the Council’s role, Brinkley, Dean Acheson, pp. 79–80.
44 “Kennan in the Cold,” Washington Post, January 14, 1958; Dulles to Acheson, January 13, 1958, Acheson Papers, 9:111, Yale University. See also Washington Post, January 13, 1958; New York Times, January 22, 1958; and Brinkley, Dean Acheson, pp. 83–84.
45 William Hard to Acheson, January 14, 1958, Anne Hard to Acheson, February 20, 1958, Acheson to Anne Hard, March 4, 1958, Acheson Papers, 15:192, Yale University.
46 GFK to Dorothy Hessman, copy to Oppenheimer, January 16, 1958, Oppenheimer Papers, Box 43; GFK Diary, January 12 and 21, 1958.
47 GFK, Memoirs, II, 250–51; ASK to JKH, January 13, 1958, JEK Papers; GFK Diary, January 21, 1958. The transcript of the Congress for Cultural Freedom discussion, which took place on January 18, 1958, is ibid., 257:10. Paul Nitze later claimed, in a memorandum dictated in July 1982 (Nitze Papers, 29:5), in an interview with me on December 13, 1989, and in a subsequent book, Tension Between Opposites, p. 131, to have been asked by Acheson to meet Kennan in Geneva and seek a recantation. Kennan adamantly denied that any such meeting had taken place (GFK to JLG, October 1, 1993, JLG Papers), and his diary for this period, which is comprehensive, contains no mention of it.
48 GFK Diary, January 21–February 2, 1958; ASK to JKH, February 3, 1958, JEK Papers.
49 Ullman interview, pp. 6–7; Harsch to Acheson, January 28, 1958, Acheson to Harsch, February 4, 1958, Harsch to Acheson, February 12, 1958, Acheson Papers, 15:194, Yale University; Acheson to William Tyler, February 25, 1958, ibid., 31:404.
50 Tyler to Acheson, March 4, 1958, ibid.; Acheson to Jessup, March 25, 1958, ibid., 15:12.
51 Kennedy to GFK, February 13, 1958, GFK to Kennedy, February 19, 1958, John F. Kennedy Papers, PPP: Senate Files, Legislation Files 1958, Foreign Policy: General, Box 691.
52 Jacqueline Kennedy to Acheson, undated, Acheson to Jacqueline Kennedy, March 8, 1958, Acheson Papers, 18:223, Yale University; Acheson to Louis Halle, March 10, 1958, ibid., 15:189; Acheson to GFK, March 13, 1958, ibid., 17:222. See also McLellan and Acheson, Among Friends, p. 137n.
53 GFK to Acheson, March 20, 1958, Acheson Papers, 15:212, Yale University.
54 Acheson to Burlingham, March 25, 1958, ibid., 4:53.
55 Mary Bundy interview, pp. 5, 12; GFK interview, September 8, 1983, pp. 5–6; GFK, Russia, the Atom and the West, p. 86.
56 GFK, Memoirs, II, 253–54; GFK interview, September 4, 1984, p. 19.
57 Franks interview, p. 24.
58 ASK to JKH, February 3, 1958, JEK Papers; Von Oppen interview, p. 1; GFK Diary, February 2, 3, 1958; GFK to Kantorowicz, March 13, 1958, GFK Papers, 138:1.
59 GFK Diary, March 28, April 9, 10, 11, 1958.
60 Ibid., May 15, 1958; Holmes to R. A. D. Ford, May 30, 1958, Holmes Papers, D/II/3/a. I am indebted to Jack Cunningham for this reference.
61 GFK Diary, May 15, 1958. Kennan’s notes for this talk are in GFK Papers, 301:22.
62 GFK Diary, May 27, 1958. Kennan garbled Goethe somewhat. The original quotation, from Act II of Faust, is “Bedenkt; der Teufel der ist alt, / So werdet alt ihn zu verstehen!” And I have of course dramatized this diary entry slightly.
TWENTY-ONE ● KENNEDY AND YUGOSLAVIA: 1958–1963
1 GFK Diary, June 21, 1958; GFK to KWK, July 19, 1958, JEK Papers.
2 GFK Diary, June 27–July 3, 1958.
3 Dulles to Andrew Goodpaster, August 3, 1958, Eisenhower Papers, Whitman DDE Diary, Box 22, “August 1958—Staff Notes (3)” folder. The memorandum is in FRUS: 1958–60, X, 129–33.
4 GFK Diary, July 25–August 2, 1958.
5 Ibid., August 5–September 10, 1958. The interview appeared in the Harrisburg Patriot-News on September 7, 1958.
6 “Minority Diplomat,” New York Times, November 18, 1957; “Newsman Fiance of Grace Kennan,” ibid., January 5, 1958; ASK to JKH, January 13, 1958, JEK Papers; GFK Diary, May 27, 1958; ASK to Frieda Por, November 27, 1958, JEK Papers.
7 “Krisha” to JEK, undated, JEK Papers. Joan’s engagement announcement appeared in The New York Times, September 7, 1958.
8 “George F. Kennan Assays Quemoy: Sees ‘Excessive Commitment’ to Chiang’s ‘Fortunes,’ ” New York Herald Tribune, September 21, 1958; GFK “Points for New Leader Meeting,” September 25, 1958, GFK Papers, 301:23; GFK Diary, December 25, 1958, and March 29, 1959. GFK’s reading notes on Kissinger and Niebuhr are appended to his 1958 Diary.
9 Ibid., May 17, 1959.
10 Chalmers M. Roberts, “German Policy Change Denied,” Washington Post, January 23, 1959; GFK Diary, February 6, April 13, and July [misdated June] 17, 1959.
11 John F. Kennedy to GFK, January 21, 1959, copy in GFK Oral History, John F. Kennedy Library; Schlesinger interview, p. 3; GFK to ASK, July 4, 1959, JEK Papers. See also GFK, “Disengagement Revisited,” Foreign Affairs 37 (January 1959), 187–210.
12 GFK Diary, July [misdated June] 17–18, 1959.
13 GFK to Berlin, March 5, 1959, GFK Papers, 5:5.
14 GFK Diary, March 29, 1959.
15 Ibid., April 17, 1959. Who was she? I don’t know.
16 GFK Diary, June 30, 1958.
17 Ibid., September 10, 1959.
18 GFK to ASK, September 22 and 26, 1959, GFK Papers, 24:5.
19 GFK interview by Fischer, March 23, 1965, Oral History Collection, John F. Kennedy Library; Kennedy to GFK, undated, GFK to Kennedy, January 4, 1960, copies ibid. GFK misdates this last exchange, in his Memoirs, II, 268, as having taken place in 1961.
20 GFK Diary, December 13, 1959; GFK Desk Calendar, January 10 and February 25–26, 1960.
21 Ullman interview, p. 5; Pipes, Vixi, p. 102; Yale Daily News, February 15, 1960; GFK to KWK, May 17 and December 30, 1960, JEK Papers. See also GFK, Russia and the West Under Lenin and Stalin.
22 GFK Diary, July 6–8, 1960; GFK to O’ Shaughnessy, July 30, 1960, ibid. GFK described these summer travels at length in Sketches from a Life, pp. 190–202. His memorandum on his talk with Tito is in FRUS: 1958–60, X, 432–36.
23 GFK to Kennedy, August 17, 1960, copy in GFK Oral History Collection, Kennedy Library.
24 Sorensen to GFK, August 30, 1960, Pre-Presidential Correspondence, Box 469, ibid.; Sulzberger Diary, October 11, 1960, in Sulzberger, Last of the Giants, p. 698; GFK to New York Times, October 12, 1960, and to James Reston, October 19, 1960, GFK Papers, 55.
25 GFK Diary, August 10, 1960, and two undated diary fragments.
26 GFK Desk Calendar, October 27, 1960; Kennedy to GFK, October 30, 1960, copy in GFK Oral History Collection, Kennedy Library; GFK interview by Fischer, p. 135; Alsop, “I’ve Seen the Best of It,” pp. 432–33; ASK to Por, December 26, 1960, JEK Papers; GFK to KWK, December 30, 1960, ibid.
27 GFK Diary, January 2, 1961. GFK expressed himself similarly in a letter to Walter Lippmann, December 28, 1960, Lippmann Papers, Box 81, Folder 1202 (courtesy of Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C.).
28 GFK Diary, January 10, 1961; GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 34–35; GFK Desk Calendar, January 10, 1961.
29 Ibid., January 23, 1961; GFK, Memoirs, II, 267; GFK to KWK, Febru
ary 2, 1961, JEK Papers.
30 GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 55–56; Carlton Savage notes, GFK meeting with the Policy Planning Staff, February 8, 1961, in FRUS: 1961–63, V, 62–63. See also, on the “captive nations” resolution, GFK to McGhee, April 20, 1961, ibid., 56. For the Yugoslavs’ enthusiasm over Kennan’s appointment, see “Yugoslavs Delighted,” New York Times, January 26, 1961, and Foy Kohler to GFK, February 7, 1961, GFK Papers, 26:15.
31 McGeorge Bundy notes, White House discussion, February 11, 1961, in FRUS: 1961–63, V, 63–67; GFK interview by Fischer, p. 42.
32 “Kennan is Backed as Envoy to Tito,” New York Times, March 7, 1961; Rusk to GFK, March 7, 1961, DSR-DF 1960–63, Box 321, “123 Kennan” folder; GFK memorandum, conversation with Kennedy, March 22, 1961, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 209A, Kennedy Library.
33 McGeorge Bundy interview, December 17, 1986, p. 3; GFK Desk Calendar, March 22, 1961.
34 Ibid., March 24, 1961. Strunsky’s poem is in GFK Papers, 46:12.
35 GFK Desk Calendar, April 19, 1961; GFK interview by Fischer, p. 55.
36 GFK undated diary fragment, 1961; GFK, Memoirs, II, 269. The Kennans had indeed sailed on the same day, April 24, 1952, but George had arrived in Moscow on May 6.
37 GFK to Grace and Joan Kennan, May 17, 1961, GFK Papers, 325:1.
38 GFK, Memoirs, II, 274–75; Hessman interview, pp. 16, 19.
39 GFK memorandum of conversation with Tito, July 17, 1961, in FRUS 1961–63, XVI, 191–96. See also GFK’s dispatches of June 8, 1961, and July 31, 1961, ibid., pp. 189–90, 196–99.
40 GFK to McGhee, April 20, 1961, GFK Papers, 56.
41 “Kennedy Appeals on Captive Lands,” New York Times, July 15, 1961; GFK to Bundy, July 19, 1961, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 209A, Kennedy Library; Bundy to GFK, July 27, 1961, ibid.; GFK, Memoirs, II, 292–93.
42 GFK to Bundy, July 19, 1961, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 209A, Kennedy Library; Bundy to GFK, July 27, 1961, ibid.
43 GFK to ASK, July 20 and August 12, 1961, GFK Papers, 24:5; Rusk to GFK, July 28, 1961, DSR-DF 1960–63, Box 321, “123 Kennan” folder.
44 Schlesinger Diary, August 12, 1961, in Schlesinger, Journals, p. 128; Bundy to Kennedy, August 14, 1961, in FRUS: 1961–63, XIV, 331; White House Diary, August 15, 1961, Kennedy Library; Kennedy to Rusk, August 14, 1961, in FRUS: 1961–63, XIV, 332. See also Schlesinger, Thousand Days, p. 397; and Beschloss, Crisis Years, p. 275.
45 McGeorge Bundy interview, p. 2. See also Brinkley, Dean Acheson, pp. 148–53; and Trachtenberg, Constructed Peace, pp. 325–27.
46 GFK to Bundy, August 15, 1961, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 209A, Kennedy Library; GFK to Oppenheimer, September 21, 1961, Oppenheimer Papers, Box 43.
47 Rusk to GFK, August 14, 1961, DSR-DF 1960–63, 762.00/8-1461; GFK interview by Fischer, p. 120.
48 GFK to Rusk, August 31, 1961, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 211A, Kennedy Library.
49 GFK to Rusk, September 2, 4, 1961, ibid. Kennan’s translation of Yepishev’s memorandum, completed on September 5, reached the State Department on September 16 and was immediately forwarded to the White House.
50 GFK to Rusk, September 4, 1961, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 211A, Kennedy Library; Rusk to GFK, September 5, 1961, in FRUS: 1961–63, XXIV, 402.
51 GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 122–23; GFK to Chester Bowles, September 22, 1961, in FRUS: 1961–63, XIV, 436–37.
52 Khrushchev to Kennedy, September 29, 1961, ibid., VI, 33–34.
53 GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 122–23; memorandum, Harriman-Khrushchev conversation, June 23, 1959, in FRUS: 1958–60, X, 276; Schlesinger interview, p. 3. See also Bird, Color of Truth, pp. 211–12.
54 Schlesinger to Kennedy, August 3, 1961, NSF Country Files, Yugoslavia, Box 209A, Kennedy Library.
55 GFK to State Department, September 3, 1961, in FRUS: 1961–63, XVI, 202; William P. Bundy interview, p. 6; GFK interview by Fischer, p. 66. For Tito’s assurances, see GFK’s dispatch of July 17, 1961, ibid.,192. Excerpts from Tito’s speech appeared in The New York Times, September 4, 1961.
56 GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 53, 63, 71–72; GFK to State Department, September 15, 1961, in FRUS: 1961–63, XVI, 206; Ball interview, October 12, 1987, p. 2; William P. Bundy interview, p. 7; Raymond E. Lisle to State Department, in FRUS: 1961–63, XVI, 209; Kennedy to GFK, October 11, 1961, ibid., p. 211.
57 GFK to David Riesman, October 3, 1961, and to Hamilton Fish Armstrong, November 2, 1961, GFK Papers, 56; Paul Underwood, “Belgrade Impressed by Kennan, But Finds Him a Tough Envoy,” New York Times, January 5, 1962.
58 GFK to Oppenheimer, December 8, 1961, Oppenheimer Papers, Box 43, “Kennan” folder.
59 Lucius D. Battle to McGeorge Bundy, January 5, 1962, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 210, Kennedy Library; National Security Action Memorandum 123, “Policy Toward Yugoslavia,” January 15, 1961, in FRUS: 1961–63, XVI, 255–56; GFK to ASK, January 12, 1962, GFK Papers, 24:5.
60 Schlesinger Diary, March 31, 1962, in Schlesinger, Journals, pp. 149–50. For GFK’s brief, completed on January 15, 1962, see NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 210, Kennedy Library. Rusk’s February 5 statement is in Department of State Bulletin 46 (February 26, 1962), 346–48. GFK’s report on the Yugoslav reaction, sent on February 14, is in FRUS: 1961–63, XVI, 257–58.
61 Komer to Bundy, May 25, 1962, NSF: Meetings and Memoranda: Staff Memoranda: Robert W. Komer, Box 322, Kennedy Library; Bundy to GFK, May 8, 1962, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 210, ibid.
62 Memorandum, Kennedy-Popović conversation, May 29, 1962, in FRUS: 1961–63, XVI, 266–70.
63 GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 46–50; GFK to Kennedy and Rusk, May 31, 1962, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 210, Kennedy Library.
64 GFK to Bundy, May 15, 1962, and Bundy to GFK, May 16, 1962, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 210, Kennedy Library; GFK to ASK, May 31, 1962, GFK Papers, 24:5; GFK Desk Calendar, June 1, 1962.
65 “Senate Bans Aid to Red Nations; Rebuffs Kennedy,” New York Times, June 7, 1962; “Aid Bill Voted by Senate: Red-Bloc Ban is Modified,” ibid., June 8, 1962; James Reston, “Greatest Deliberative Body in the World,” ibid., June 8, 1962; GFK to State Department, June 11, 1962, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 210, Kennedy Library.
66 Max Frankel, “U.S. Envoys Warn on Cuts in Red Aid,” New York Times, June 15, 1962; GFK to State Department, June 11, 1962, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 210; “Kennan Leaves Belgrade,” New York Times, June 24, 1962. See also GFK, Memoirs, II, 300.
67 GFK to ASK, July 3, 5, 8 and 10, 1962, GFK Papers, 24:5. See also GFK Desk Diary, July 2–10, 1962; also GFK, “U.S. Shouldn’t Slam Door on Yugoslavia,” Washington Post, July 8, 1962.
68 GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 71–72, 76–77.
69 “Conferees Grant Kennedy Leeway to Aid Red Lands,” New York Times, July 19, 1962; GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 86–89; GFK, Memoirs, II, 303–5; GFK Desk Diary, September 27, 1962.
70 GFK to Kennedy and Rusk, October 5, 1962, Bundy to GFK, October 5, 1962, Kennedy to GFK, October 9, 1962, all in NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 210, Kennedy Library; GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 92–93.
71 “Trade Act Signed, Also Postal Bill,” New York Times, October 12, 1962; Bundy to GFK, October 11, 1962, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 210, Kennedy Library; GFK Desk Diary, October 14, 1962.
72 GFK to State Department and American Embassy, Moscow, September 13, 1962, NSF Country Files: Cuba, Box 39, Kennedy Library; GFK and ASK to JEK, October 23, 1962, JEK Papers.
73 GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 110, 124.
74 GFK to State Department, November 28, 1962, in FRUS: 1961–63, XVI, 292–309.
75 Bundy to Kennedy, December 13, 1962, ibid., pp. 309–10; GFK to State Department, December 13, 1962, and January 3, 1963, ibid., pp. 310–13, 315–19.
76 Klein to Bundy, January 4, 1963, NSF Country Files: Yugoslavia, Box 210A, Kennedy Library.
77 GFK to ASK, January 10, 1963, GFK Pap
ers, 24:5; GFK memorandum, conversation with Kennedy, January 16, 1963, in FRUS: 1961–63, XVI, 326–27; Kennedy press conference, January 24, 1963, Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1963, Document 35.
78 GFK to State Department, January 30, 1963, in FRUS: 1961–61, XVI, 332–34.
79 GFK Desk Diary, February 5–11, 1963; GFK to Lippmann, February 8, 1963, ibid., 56; GFK to Davies, February 19, 1963, ibid., 10:12.
80 White House press release, May 17, 1963, ibid., 57; Schlesinger interview, p. 5; GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 83–84, 94–95, 111–16.
81 Ibid., pp. 67–70; GFK, Memoirs, II, 278–80.
82 Jones Diary, undated but pp. 62–63, Owen T. Jones Papers, Box 6, “August 18—December 31, 1962” folder (courtesy of Sam Rushay).
83 GFK Diary, May 31, 1963.
84 GFK Desk Diary, June 2, 6, 1963.
85 GFK Diary, June 1, 8, 1963.
86 GFK Desk Diary, June 9–22, 1963.
87 GFK, Memoirs, II, 311–12.
88 Ibid., pp. 313–14; GFK notes on Tito visit, October 16, 1963, GFK Papers, 235:4.
89 “Tito’s Whirlwind White House Visit Marked by Meetings and Protests,” New York Times, October 18, 1963; memorandum, Kennedy-Tito conversation, October 17, 1963, in FRUS: 1961–63, XVI, 355–59.
90 GFK, Memoirs, II, 314–15; GFK to Kennedy, October 22, 1963, GFK Papers, 57. The New York Times covered the anti-Tito protests in a series of stories on October 21, 22, and 23, 1963.
91 GFK to Kennedy, handwritten, October 22, 1963, PDF Special Correspondence, “Kennan” folder, Kennedy Library; Kennedy to GFK, October 28, 1963, GFK Papers, 26:5; GFK interview by Fischer, p. 106.
TWENTY-TWO ● COUNTER-CULTURAL CRITIC: 1963–1968
1 J. Robert Moskin, “Our Foreign Policy Is Paralyzed,” Look 27 (November 19, 1963), 25–27.
2 GFK, Memoirs, II, 21; GFK untitled, undated typescript, published as “Sein Tod ist nicht allein Amerikas Tragödie,” in the Zürich Tages Anzeiger, November 30, 1963.
3 GFK interview by Fischer, pp. 115–16. I am indebted to my research assistant Andrew Scott for compiling the number of meetings, based on Kennedy Library records.