Kennan and the Cold War: An Unauthorized Biography - Couverture rigide

Felix, David

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1412856884 ISBN 13 : 9781412856881

Editeur : Routledge, 2015

Synopsis

With his policy of containment, US diplomat George F. Kennan (1904-2005) devised a way to resist the Soviet Union's attempt to conquer the world for Communism. That way was to go to the brink of war to prevent war. His idea was first expressed in his famous Long Telegram from Moscow on February 22, 1946.

It took genius to see a wartime ally as a dangerous adversary, and to convince the American leadership to act upon it. Back in the United States, the young diplomat first acted as deputy commandant in the National War College. He then operated as director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff to restore Europe from wartime destruction. By 1950 Kennan began to reverse his thinking, believing that the military component of American policy was going too far. While his old colleagues continued to develop US power, given point by the atomic bomb, Kennan withdrew from government and began a new career as a public intellectual campaigning for a more peaceable policy in his eighteen books, and articles and talks.

The breakdown of the Soviet economy in the 1980s showed that Kennan was right the second time as well. Always sympathetic to the Russian people and culture, which the later Soviet leaders appreciated, Kennan was able to welcome the new non-Communist Russia into a more peaceable relationship with the democracies that ended the Cold War. His life and works have become a national treasure.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

David Felix is professor emeritus of history in the City University of New York. His research interests include the history of ideas, economic history, and biography. He is the author of Biography of an Idea: John Maynard Keynes and the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Keynes: A Critical Life, Marx as Politician, and other works.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Routledge
• Date d'édition: 2015
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1412856884
• ISBN 13: 9781412856881
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 220
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible