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George Kennan

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After World War II, the American government actively engaged with the communist government of The Soviet Union. Politicians and the public alike could not form a practical foreign policy because they did not fully understand the complexities of Soviet ideas and power. America desperately needed help. George Kennan, on the other hand, was a scholar of Russian history and political thought, a diplomat in Moscow, and a leader in the State Department. His expertise offered insight into the well-known foreign policy of containment. Kennan, through his policy of containment, sought to uphold American national interests amidst the growing threat of the USSR and an ignorant American public. In "The Sources of Soviet Conduct", George Kennan aimed to …show more content…
Kennan began his career in foreign service at the Foreign Service School, where he decided to study Russian. From the beginning of his service, Kennan was skeptical of the American population, he wrote: "It is obvious that there are millions of people in this country who haven't the faintest conception of the rights or wrongs of the complicated questions with which the federal government is faced". After his diplomacy in Eastern Europe, Keenan desired to share the truth about Russia and her politics in America. He came to this conclusion after trips to the Soviet Union and conversations with the Russian government and believed "one country could do little to alter conditions in another (particularly a tyranny)." With this idea in mind, Kennan spread his "Long Telegram". His telegram, composed of five parts, expressed a basic understanding of Soviet nature and thinking and "practical dedications from a standpoint of US policy." This telegram actually did very little to change how the United States approached the Soviet Union, but convinced Kennan on a policy of moderation, realism, and containment. Kennan's convictions and deep knowledge of Russian ambitions led him to speak up and kindly push the United States to understand along with

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