Introduction of Myself

I am George Kennan and I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 26, 1904. Thankfully, I was given a substantial amount of education at Princeton University and I was ultimately appointed as vice-consul in Geneva. I was thoroughly excited to be in such an involved position, but this changed later on. As I was transferred from Geneva to Berlin to Tallinn and then to Riga, I was trained to become an expert on the ways and history of the Soviet Union. By this time, I thought I had learned and plowed just about all the information anyone possibly could receive and I was a bit tired of merely learning. However, I was sent once again to study Russia at the University of Berlin, a time when I learned much about other governments and workings, stuffing information into my head. Eventually, when honorable Roosevelt made diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, I became the 3rd (how proud my friends and family were) secretary at the embassy in Moscow, and two years later, Vienna. While I was delighted with the fact that I was promoted in a position that no longer needed any extensive studying, but more application of my studies, I did not quite agree to the irony that the US should support the Soviet Union and oppose Germany. I thought this would hurt the reputation of the US, but there was not much I could do at that point in my life.
When America was bombed at Pearl Harbor and became a part of the Second World War, I was weary of what could become a very destructive war. When that event happened, I was at Nazi Germany, yes a very, very bad place to be in. What was even worse was, I scorned the actions of Stalin. I had an opposing opinion in a violent country, but I securely kept my opinions with myself and after the war, returned safely to the US where Marshall made me a director of the State Department’s policy-planning staff. It was I who decided the spread of communism would be threatening and I finally took action (how refreshed my heart was!). I organized the idea of containment.
Later, I also wrote an article in the Foreign Affairs magazine, of course, without my name, just for security reasons. I felt a great urge to express my contained emotions—while I felt it was highly necessary to contain communism from spreading, I could not possibly contain my emotions against communism and the Soviet Union. I pointed out the main plan I believed the Soviet Union held—to spread Soviet control over the world through the spread of communism. I believed that since US is a powerful country, if US (as well as the west) showed great opposition to the spread of communism, the Soviets would back down.
Thank goodness my ideas were not ignored at last, unlike some other unfortunate politicians during my time. My ideas became real policies that formulated aspects of the Truman Doctrine and the European Recovery Program. Yes, I felt a personal dislike towards communism and the Soviet Union, but I felt overall that the spread of communism would disrupt the very existence and creation of US, a free country. And that was the peak of my career. Eventually, when I was 52 years old, I became a professor of historical studies at Princeton, but it was not only teaching that I focused on, of course since that would be far too boring. I had become too saturated in my involvement with world affairs and simply had to work on my views on containment. I, a bit less biased on the issue having let much of my emotions out in the Foreign Affairs magazine, supported a disengagement program from areas of problems with the Soviet Union. I was a professor until Kennedy made me the US ambassador to Yugoslavia until I was 59 years old.

Long Telegram

After years of exposure to the system of the Soviet Union and years of culminating dislike and opposition of the country, I finally found courage and enough antipathy in February 1946 to write a telegram, rather LONG telegram since it was, after all, 8000 words long. I felt that while some others believed the Soviet Union was truly working for world peace, what was more important to it was security and power. In my views, the Soviet Union selfishly lived to spread Communism since the country believed socialism and democracy would disintegrate communism. I opposed the propaganda that the Soviet Union presented to their poor repressed citizens, showing only the good (sometimes faking the good) side of Communism. Not only was the Soviet Union cruel to its own citizens, but also foreign countries. I wrote in the telegram, “In foreign countries Communists will, as a rule, work toward destruction of all forms of personal independence, economic, political or moral.” Of course, I did not simply point out the faults of Communism and the Soviet Union for that would be useless, but I proposed new ideas that would solve this terrible issue. Containment was a big solution (of course, since I created it), preventing the spread of communism. Already it made my stomach turn to think that Communism existed in such a large country and allowing other countries to kneel down to that horrible government made me feel sour all over. By preventing the spread of Communism, I knew that I could help prevent other countries from taking the wrong route and follow our wonderful west side’s government. Having written this telegram, I felt ever so refreshed releasing all the tormenting negative emotions and thoughts I had kept in.

X Article

It was not enough for me to point out the problems of the Soviet Union through my Long Telegram. I needed to publish an article or something that would be publicly displayed. I still needed to express solutions and further details on the Soviet Union because people still believed that since the Soviet Union and the U.S. were allies in defeating Nazi Germany, the two countries were friends. How foolish of them to think so. Was it not obvious that the Soviet Union had other intentions such as spreading communism and it’s power all over the globe? Apparently it was not obvious and I felt it my duty as Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States to open people’s minds up to the truth (since other government officials apparently did not or could not see the reality). I did so through the X Article with my pseudonym of “X” (unfortunately some people found out it was I who had written the article). I clearly pointed out in the article that the Soviet Union was not entirely our friend because our policies were too different, or rather completely contrasting. The U.S. wanted a freer globe while the Soviet Union wanted to strengthen itself through the spread of Communism. Clearly, friendship would be rather difficult in such differing countries. I felt it was necessary to contain the spread of communism. I hated wars so to prevent another war, I decided the U.S. would not touch the areas already affected by communism, but the U.S. should prevent communism from spreading to other nations. I was ever so proud of such an ingenious idea and was happier to see the implementation of my idea. However, when people misunderstood my article to mean that the U.S. would contain the Soviet Union as well, I felt as though I were trapped in a box. People seemed to read my article in ways I did not want it to mean, but I suppose it was due to my mistakes in the way I wrote the passage. Whatever the problem was with the article, I was so stressed by the way it was misinterpreted that I got painful ulcers (could they not have spared a bit of my health by interpreting one article correctly?).

Ambassador to the Soviet Union

In December 1951, President Truman nominated me as the next United States ambassador to the Soviet Union and this decision was strongly supported by the Senate. I felt a very warm swell feeling in my heart as I realized that people trusted my ways and workings, probably a feeling that the leaders of the Soviet Union probably never felt. Excitedly, I went to the Soviet Union to investigate what was going on, but my excitement soon declined. Police officers continued to follow me and I was limited on what I could discover (why those officers followed me, a trustworthy ambassador, I couldn’t ask). I learned through my trip that the United States and Soviet Union were not trying to tie better relationships but rather were competing with each other and backing down when they got too close to war. I did recognize that neither the U.S. nor the Soviet Union were working their best for peace since they were not negotiating their differences, but I knew that the Soviet Union was the heart of the problem, not the U.S. The Soviet Union claimed that the United States was planning for a war against the Soviet Union. Hearing such terrible accusations, I grew angry and impulsively made a statement that offended the Soviet Union. I would not like to specify exactly what the statement was for now that I look back, I certainly did say something quite undiplomatic and worthy of the punishment of losing my position as ambassador. Apparently, what I had said sounded like a comparison to Nazi Germany and the Soviets prevented me from entering their state. Indeed, what a foolish mistake I had made that cost me a position I had longed for. Even so, I still felt many injustices in the accusations that the Soviet Union made against the United States. Perhaps it was because the Soviet Union was simply insecure of their government.

The Best Ideology for Our Government

Too many presidents and leaders of the U.S. either called for the use of military force or an overly emphasized sense of moralism during their terms. I believed the best ideology for the U.S. government was political realism where morality does exist, but was not enough to hinder U.S.’s power and military forces were used only in times of absolute need. Why did the U.S. have to involve itself in the Vietnam War? There was nothing worth gaining out of the war and the U.S. already lost so many men over World War II and World War I (poor soldiers). Participation in the Vietnam War was one of the most lamentable actions. There was no good reason to be involved. The Vietnam War served as one of my examples of the useless ways the U.S. used military force. Rather, Containment would have been better and more practical where only military defenses would be placed in “communist threatened” countries. This, I knew, would definitely not cause a war since the Soviet Union was too tired from previous wars to erupt yet another war.
President Bush awarded me the Medal of Freedom in 1989. How ecstatic I was to receive the award, the nation’s highest civilian honor! But this could not prevent me from becoming biased in favor of presidents. I still saw flaws in the ways of U.S. presidents and I had to express them. I felt it was necessary for the U.S. governments to "withdraw from its public advocacy of democracy and human rights". The U.S. was already busy preventing the spread of communism, but trying to spread its own policies was, to me, hypocritical and a waste of time and effort. Seriously, the government could have taken much more practical steps that may possibly even have strengthened the relationship between the Soviet Union and the U.S. while preventing the spread of communism.