← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Walter Yannis
Thread ID: 17385 | Posts: 20 | Started: 2005-03-18
2005-03-18 14:16 | User Profile
[URL=http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050318/ap_on_re_us/obit_kennan]Diplomat, Historian George Kennan Dies [/URL]
PRINCETON, N.J. - In 1947, diplomat George F. Kennan wrote an article that would guide America's postwar policy for decades. He proposed ââ¬â in the unsigned piece ââ¬â that the United States stop the global spread of Communism through ideology and politics, not war.
The policy came to be known as "containment" and Kennan went on to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian.
Kennan, called a role model by his peers in the foreign service, died Thursday night at his Princeton home, said his son-in-law, Kevin Delany of Washington. He was 101.
"He was a giant. Many people have called him the most important foreign service officer of the past half-century," Delany said. "He was a very thoughtful man with an elegant writing style."
Identified only as "X," Kennan laid out the general lines of the containment policy in the journal "Foreign Affairs" in 1947, when he was chief of the State Department's policy planning staff. The article also predicted the collapse of Soviet Communism decades later.
"It is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies," Kennan wrote.
When the Communist Party was finally driven from power in the Soviet Union after the failed hardline coup in August 1991, Kennan called it "a turning point of the most momentous historical significance."
In his 1947 article, Kennan disagreed with the emphasis on military containment embodied in the "Truman doctrine." That policy, announced three months before publication of Kennan's article, committed U.S. aid in support of "free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure."
Kennan believed a Soviet Union exhausted by war posed no military threat to the United States or its allies, but was a strong ideological and political rival. In later years, he came to believe that the arms race, waged on the U.S. side in the name of containment, had become the greatest threat to both the United States and the Soviet Union.
Despite the "X" article and his work in formulating the Marshall Plan, Kennan lost influence rapidly after Dean Acheson was appointed secretary of state in 1949. After a difference of opinion on Germany ââ¬â Kennan favored reunification, his superiors did not ââ¬â he took a leave of absence in 1950 to work at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton.
He was appointed ambassador to Moscow in May 1952 but was declared "persona non grata" within a year. He resigned from the foreign service in 1953 because of differences with the new secretary, John Foster Dulles.
During his years out of the foreign service, Kennan won the Pulitzer Prize for history and a National Book Award for "Russia Leaves the War," published in 1956.
He again won the Pulitzer Prize in 1967 for "Memoirs, 1925-1950." A second volume, taking his reminiscences up to 1963, appeared in 1972. Among his other books was "Sketches from a Life," published in 1989.
Kennan returned to the foreign service in the Kennedy administration, serving as ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1961-63. In 1967, he was assigned to meet Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Josef Stalin, in Switzerland and helped persuade her to come to the United States.
In the 1960s, Kennan opposed American involvement in Vietnam, arguing that the United States had no vital interest at stake. In Kennan's view, Washington had only five areas of vital interest: the Soviet Union, Britain, Germany, Japan and the United States itself.
George Frost Kennan was born Feb. 16, 1904, in Milwaukee. An uncle, George Kennan, was an expert on Czarist Russia who wrote "Siberia and the Exile System" in 1891.
A year after graduating from Princeton University in 1925, Kennan entered the foreign service. Early postings included Switzerland, Germany, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
In 1929, Kennan was assigned to a program in Russian language, history and politics in Berlin. When the United States resumed diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union in 1933, Kennan accompanied Ambassador William C. Bullit to Moscow.
Kennan was assigned to Berlin at the outbreak of World War II in 1939, and was interned for six months after the United States entered the war in 1941.
During late 1943 and 1944 he was counselor of the American delegation to the European Advisory Commission, which worked to prepare Allied policy in Europe.
Kennan returned to Moscow and remained there from May 1944 to April 1946. At the end of that term, he wrote a long analysis of the prospects for postwar Russia, the so-called "Long Telegram" which became the basis for the "X" article.
In 1947, Kennan was appointed director of the policy planning staff of the Department of State and directed much of the groundwork for the Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild Europe with a large infusion of aid.
Reflecting on the "X" article in 1987, Kennan wrote in "Foreign Affairs" that he now regarded the Soviet Union as a military threat but as no ideological or political threat to the United States ââ¬â the reverse of the situation he perceived in 1947.
"It is entirely clear to me that Soviet leaders do not want a war with us and are not planning to initiate one," he wrote.
In a New York Times article published in February 2004 as Kennan turned 100, former ambassador Richard Gardner said: "All of us who aspired to careers in the Foreign Service still look to Kennan as a role model. Just look at the Long Telegram. How many ambassadors today could write such a document?"
Kennan's honors included the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989, Albert Einstein Peace Prize in 1981, the German Book Trade Peace Prize in 1982, and the Gold Medal in History from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1984.
Kennan is survived by his wife, Annelise, whom he married in 1931. They had three daughters and a son.
2005-03-18 14:49 | User Profile
Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. - Tennyson, [I]Ulysses[/I]
2005-03-18 16:39 | User Profile
Thanks for posting this, Doc...
*Reflecting on the "X" article in 1987, Kennan wrote in "Foreign Affairs" that he now regarded the Soviet Union as a military threat but as no ideological or political threat to the United States ââ¬â the reverse of the situation he perceived in 1947.
"It is entirely clear to me that Soviet leaders do not want a war with us and are not planning to initiate one," he wrote.*
But what if the Transnational Plutocracy continues to provoke Moscow?
2005-03-18 17:16 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Walter Yannis][URL=http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050318/ap_on_re_us/obit_kennan]Diplomat, Historian George Kennan Dies [/URL]
"It is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies," Kennan wrote.
When the Communist Party was finally driven from power in the Soviet Union after the failed hardline coup in August 1991, Kennan called it "a turning point of the most momentous historical significance."
In his 1947 article, Kennan disagreed with the emphasis on military containment embodied in the "Truman doctrine." That policy, announced three months before publication of Kennan's article, committed U.S. aid in support of "free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure."
[I][B]Kennan believed a Soviet Union exhausted by war posed no military threat to the United States or its allies[/B][/I], but was a strong ideological and political rival. In later years, he came to believe that the arms race, waged on the U.S. side in the name of containment, had become the greatest threat to both the United States and the Soviet Union. [/QUOTE]George Kennan was one of the few prescient men in American public life. He made these thoughts public:[QUOTE]Contrary to popular opinion, American contribution to victory in both World Wars of the twentieth century was insignificant when compared to our allies. Yet we have long held the idea we saved Europe. One of the truly wise Americans, [I][COLOR=Red]George Kennan, over 90 years of age, has stated he did not regard the United States civilization of the post-World War II era as a successful civilization. Mr. Kennan did not think the political system of present day America adequate to the age to which we are moving. Mr. Kennan wrote this country is destined to succumb to failures which cannot be other than tragic and enormous[/COLOR][/I]. Mr. Kennan has not been alone in his pessimism. William Pfaff, [B]Barbarian Sentiments[/B], p182 (Hill & Wang, 1989)[/QUOTE]I do not expect these sentiments to appear in his obituaries.
George Kennan did have doubts about the wisdom of embracing Israel. [QUOTE]George Catlett Marshall, Robert Lovett, and George Kennan were just a few of the old-line Wasps who pointed out the support of the state of Israel would be a burden in establishing normal relations in the Mideast. What they had to confront was the primacy of American domestic considerations in a presidential election year. Clark Clifford had argued from domestic political considerations that Harry Truman should recognize the state of Israel as soon as it was proclaimed. Lovett responded this was just a ploy for the Jewish vote in an American election and eventually would damage the office of the president. Marshall supported this argument and said if domestic considerations were not involved, Clifford would not be involved in the debate. Marshall, who did not vote, stated if Truman took the advice offered by Clifford, and if Marshall were to vote, he would vote against Truman. Clark Clifford thought Marshall's retort was of a "righteous God-damned Baptist tone", which was odd for a man who was an Episcopalian like so many who are regarded as the founding fathers of this country. Clifford came to be regarded as the political mastermind behind the election of Harry Truman over Dewey. This election enabled him to be a power in the Democratic party for almost a half-century. Many came to regard him as the ultimate insider in Washington. Clifford, who was a Navy Lieutenant Commander in Washington during the years of the war, obviously was oblivious to the military burdens this commitment would bring, but one suspects he did not care. Marshall, who many intelligent people regard as the great American of the twentieth century, has largely been consigned to oblivion. Such has been the hierarchy of values within the American political world.[/QUOTE]The United States was not prepared to resist the Soviet Union in any meaningful way after World War II except through righteous shouting and tears. [QUOTE]The post-war army was not prepared to do much in the way of fighting. In Seoul in 1946 troops staged a "send us home" rally when there were Soviet and American negotiations over the future of Korea. The American army had demobilized to such an extent that George Marshall complained bitterly about his limitations as Secretary of State. The ex-general was being pressured constantly by the American embassy in Moscow to give the Russians hell. Similar appeals were being made on behalf of China and the Far East. Marshall stated his weapons for giving the enemy hell were one and one-third divisions in the United States. There was nothing in Alaska. The Soviet Union, in sharp contrast, had 260 divisions. Demobilization of the army after the war due to sharp pressure from an ignorant electorate which congressional and executive branches were afraid to resist could be described as a mistake of almost criminal magnitude.[/QUOTE]Those like Marshall and Kennan who had to deal in realpolitik and the contrived righteous innocence of American politics deserve our gratitude. This most certainly includes the loudmouths who professed fervent anticommunism, but lacked courage to confront this poisonous ideology.
2005-03-18 18:29 | User Profile
marking
2005-03-18 19:04 | User Profile
[URL=http://www.johndclare.net/cold_war7_Kennan.htm]The Long Telegram[/URL]
2005-03-18 19:05 | User Profile
[QUOTE=edward gibbon]This most certainly includes the loudmouths who professed fervent anticommunism, but lacked courage to confront this poisonous ideology. .[/QUOTE]
Which raises the very interesting question: from an ideological standpoint, did we win the Cold War?
Keenan stated in the Long Telegram that:
[QUOTE]Much depends on health and vigor of our own society. World communism is like malignant parasite which feeds only on diseased tissue. This is point at which domestic and foreign policies meets Every courageous and incisive measure to solve internal problems of our own society, to improve self-confidence, discipline, morale and community spirit of our own people, is a diplomatic victory over Moscow worth a thousand diplomatic notes and joint communiqués.[/QUOTE]
The fact that Jewish Marxism during the entire Cold War period while America faced her greatest peril was engaged in demoralizing American society, fomenting division, promoting crime and sexual immorality, and attacking our most fundamental social institution, the family. We know that MLK was funded by Moscow and handled by Jewish Communist operatives here.
The fact that MLK's Soviet-inspired message is now official American doctrine combined with the fact that the institution of marriage is dead compels me to conclude that Marxism won.
2005-03-19 01:45 | User Profile
Walter Yannis,
[QUOTE]Which raises the very interesting question: from an ideological standpoint, did we win the Cold War?
The fact that Jewish Marxism during the entire Cold War period while America faced her greatest peril was engaged in demoralizing American society, fomenting division, promoting crime and sexual immorality, and attacking our most fundamental social institution, the family. We know that MLK was funded by Moscow and handled by Jewish Communist operatives here.
The fact that MLK's Soviet-inspired message is now official American doctrine combined with the fact that the institution of marriage is dead compels me to conclude that Marxism won.[/QUOTE]
The Soviets won the Cold War from an ideological standpoint without question.
2005-03-19 02:21 | User Profile
I know that George Kennan was very much a man of the establishment and did not favor the Isolationism of which I am fond, but he was an original thinker and an open minded man. I strongly recommend reading his Memoirs which are a brilliant piece of work. The guy had a writing style that could be described as one of lyrical beauty, even when writing about the most mundane diplomatic history.
2005-03-19 02:30 | User Profile
CornCod - thanks for the recommendation. I'll add that to the list.
2005-03-19 04:27 | User Profile
[QUOTE=CornCod]I know that George Kennan was very much a man of the establishment and did not favor the Isolationism of which I am fond, but he was an original thinker and an open minded man. I strongly recommend reading his Memoirs which are a brilliant piece of work. The guy had a writing style that could be described as one of lyrical beauty, even when writing about the most mundane diplomatic history.[/QUOTE]
From the article: He was appointed ambassador to Moscow in May 1952 but was declared "persona non grata" within a year. He resigned from the foreign service in 1953 because of differences with the new secretary, John Foster Dulles.
He'd have been the U.S. Ambassador during the final months of Stalin's life/rule--what happened that caused Kennan to lose his Diplomatic status in Moscow?
2005-03-19 05:31 | User Profile
The reason Kennan was declared 'persona-non-grata' was that he gave a speech in Berlin comparing the Soviets to the Nazis. For an establishment diplomat he often took an independent line. As the "father" of containment he was against any policy that showed tendancies toward a rollback policy. He had a tendancy to anger both the hard-core Cold Warriors AND the folks on the Left who thought the Soviets were harmless. He was a fascinating figure.
2005-03-19 05:42 | User Profile
Thanks!
I see that he also spent half a year under German arrest following Pearl Harbor--as a Soviet expert he must have been doubly suspect to the Reich.
2005-03-20 03:45 | User Profile
The below is from the Washington Post obituary: [QUOTE]Believing as he did in a limitless human capacity for error, Mr. Kennan was an unabashed elitist who distrusted democratic processes. Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas reported in their book "The Wise Men" that he [I][COLOR=Red][B]suggested in an unpublished work that women, blacks and immigrants be disenfranchised[/B][/COLOR][/I]. He deplored the automobile, computers, commercialism, environmental degradation and other manifestations of modern life. He loathed popular American culture. In his memoirs, he described himself as a "guest of one's time and not a member of its household." [/QUOTE]Very few doubts for Mr. Kennan. Will he be proven correct again?
2005-03-23 12:55 | User Profile
[URL=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/oped/chi-0503220317mar22,1,3833205.story?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true]George Kennan, a conservative's conservative[/URL] American diplomat did more than any other envoy to shape U.S. policy during the Cold War
By David Engerman. David Engerman teaches history at Brandeis University and is the author of "Modernization from the Other Shore."
March 22, 2005
This past week's tributes to George Frost Kennan, the Cold Warrior, misrepresent his Cold War politics and ignore the fundamental conservatism that left him uncomfortable not merely with American foreign policy, but with modern society in general. As today's neoconservatives praise Kennan for his call to arms against the Soviet Union, they miss the deeper and darker conservatism that motivated him.
Kennan belonged to a conservative tradition that dated back to and celebrated the 18th Century world, an era when conservatives sounded like the political philosopher Edmund Burke, not today's Straussians. Kennan desired a world of fixed hierarchies, in which wise statesman acted on behalf of subjects, not one in which politicians followed popular polls. He called himself "an expatriate in his own time," more suited to the 18th Century than the 20th or 21st, even though he would hardly have prospered in such a time, being born to immigrants in the provinces.
True to form, Kennan seemed out of place everywhere he went. His high school yearbook listed his pet peeve as "The Universe." At Princeton in the early 1920s, he looked on with condescension and envy at the frolics of young American aristocrats. Once in the Foreign Service, Kennan spent most of his 20s and 30s studying Russia, first in Berlin and eventually from the Moscow embassy that he helped establish. Staunchly anti-Soviet, Kennan nevertheless praised the USSR for dispelling "the curses of egotism, romanticism, daydreaming, introspection and perplexity which befall the youth of bourgeois countries"--and almost certainly befell the memo's 28-year-old author.
Returning home in the late 1930s, Kennan grew increasingly alienated from American life. He saw America as too materialistic (even in the worst years of the Depression) and too Democratic. In his first unpublished memoirs, written at the tender age of 34, he acknowledged just how far "out-of-tune" he was with "Western civilization."
But Kennan's most curious writing in the 1930s--and the most infamous among the large circle of academic Kennanists--was an essay called "The Prerequisites." It argued that providing the vote to women, immigrants, African-Americans had degraded American politics (and perhaps American women). Better, he thought, to have a group of statesmen care for these "dependents" than allow them to control their own destiny, let alone their nation's. He seemed surprised when the essay came in for criticism in a dissertation in the early 1970s; only then did he remove "The Prerequisites" from Princeton's archive. But by the late 1970s, Kennan proposed that a Council of State, selected by the U.S. president from a slate of worthies, look after America's interests.
Kennan's anti-Democratic impulse underlay his foreign-policy positions. His call for "realism" in foreign relations--acting solely on the basis of national interest--was a plea for the fickle American public to leave diplomacy to diplomats like himself better able to discern the country's interests.
This realism led him to propose "containing" the Soviet Union through the application of "counter-pressure" in the two writings that catapulted him to fame, his "Long Telegram" of 1946 and "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" in 1947. Calm and realistic American opposition to the Soviet Union would allow for a peaceful American victory.
But most American diplomacy during the Cold War failed Kennan's test of interests. He quickly complained that containment became too militaristic and too political for reasonable men like himself to pursue American interests. While no friend of the USSR, he envisioned an era of coexistence, where superpowers opposed each other without risking mutual destruction. For this reason, he criticized the accelerating arms race. Realism amounted to self-preservation of a nation, but also of elite prerogatives to shape policy.
Kennan's deeply rooted conservatism is most visible in his attitudes toward non-European peoples. If large segments of the American population weren't fit for democracy, neither were whole continents. He had few problems with dictatorships in Latin America or Africa. He opposed the American war in Vietnam because he doubted that the nation could ever become a democracy. Besides, he added, no direct U.S. interests were at stake.
Kennan's last published statement, a little-noticed 2002 interview appearing in a weekly for Washington insiders, applied this same logic to Iraq. He castigated President Bush for pushing the nation to war and congressional Democrats for not slowing the president down. (Uncomfortable with democracy, Kennan nevertheless sided often with the Democratic Party.) Saddam Hussein, though dictatorial, did not threaten American interests directly--and besides, were Iraqis really likely to end up with anyone better?
My one conversation with Kennan, who once was ambassador to Moscow, began with Russia and quickly turned to the depth of his conservatism. Asked what shaped his ideas about Russia, he recalled his professors at the University of Berlin in 1927. They had taught him about Realien, the givens of geography, climate and race that shaped nations and international relations. (The English "realities" doesn't suggest the word's resonance in 18th Century German philosophy.) Realien outlasted ephemera like ideology and even political systems--and should, he believed, be the basis of any foreign policy.
As the Bush administration seeks to bring democracy to some parts of the world where it is least known, its diplomats have tried to associate Kennan's ideas with their plans to radically remake the Middle East through war, nation-building and the export of democracy. These appeals show just how far conservatism has evolved. One of the last words to associate with Kennan is "neo." Rather than remaking the future around American ideas, he sought to conserve a bygone world, even if it was a world he had never known.
2005-03-23 17:06 | User Profile
[QUOTE]As today's neoconservatives praise Kennan for his call to arms against the Soviet Union, [B]they miss the deeper and darker conservatism that motivated him.[/B]
Kennan belonged to a conservative tradition that dated back to and celebrated the 18th Century world, an era when [COLOR=Red]conservatives sounded like the political philosopher Edmund Burke, not today's Straussians[/COLOR]. [/QUOTE]Only Jews would consider Strauss the superior of Edmund Burke. Kennan was right, but where are his successors?
For the past 3 months I have been in Mexico trying to rid myself of the ailments of 40 years of neglect. I have not been successful. Perhaps seeking succor, some 10 days ago I stood outside the cathedral in Cuernavaca and witnessed a Sunday night mass. To see the beauty and grace of the service within the massive stone structure impressed me to no end, even though I am essentially non-religious. Some genetic impulse was awakened, and I felt that my duty to Western Civilization was to venture forth and put a Jew on the rack.
2005-03-23 17:08 | User Profile
[QUOTE=edward gibbon]To see the beauty and grace of the service within the massive stone structure impressed me to no end, even though I am essentially non-religious. Some genetic impulse was awakened, and I felt that my duty to Western Civilization was to venture forth and put a Jew on the rack..[/QUOTE]
Your instincts are sound, EG.
2005-03-25 13:56 | User Profile
I was watching Charlie Rose last night and Charlie used the last few minutes of his show by re-running part of an interview with Mr Kennan from 1993. Did anyone see that?
Honestly, I didn't really know much about George Kennan, but after seeing him in that 12 year old interview, I thought he was a very, very wise man. I [U]paraphrase[/U]:
'The US shouldn't go around the world now (post-Soviet Union) pointing it's finger at countries telling them that our way of democracy is the best the world as ever seen and it should be their form of government too. No, not every country is able to sustain, nor do they desire, our type of democracy, but we should lead by example. The US should take this time now (post Soviet) to get it's own house in order which will give the world something to emulate, but we shouldn't be the ones boasting of our own superpower status.....let other nations praise us for how we run our own country.'
Jeez, Mr Kennan is probably already turning over in his grave with Bush & Co. in the process of wrecking every last bit of our once proud country. Maybe Mr Kennan was already cognizant of Bush's nation-wrecking policies and felt that at 101 years old, if they haven't listened to me by now, it's time to depart. God Bless his name.
2005-03-25 17:46 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Some 10 days ago I stood outside the cathedral in Cuernavaca and witnessed a Sunday night mass. To see the beauty and grace of the service within the massive stone structure impressed me to no end, even though I am essentially non-religious.
Kennan was right, but where are his successors?[/QUOTE]
They're not standing outside a church, unless it's to expectorate. We might as well declare conservatism dead and buried than allow Likud's Fellow Travellers to claim the inheritance.
[QUOTE]As the Bush administration seeks to bring democracy to some parts of the world where it is least known, its diplomats have tried to associate Kennan's ideas with their plans to radically remake the Middle East through war, nation-building and the export of democracy. [B]These appeals show just how far conservatism has evolved. [/B] [/QUOTE]
Into just another cartoon brought to you by Shuki Levy.
[QUOTE]Realien outlasted ephemera like ideology and even political systems--and should, he believed, be the basis of any foreign policy.[/QUOTE]
Almost; it's [B]real aliens [/B] who have outlasted the rest of us. The malign caterpillar of "Jewish Bolshevism" has burst from its cocoon as "Jewish democracy", and all the world flinches in dread save for us - a disturbing mix of Candide and Typhoid Mary, armed to the teeth, "finding" new Hitlers everywhere we're directed to look.
2005-03-30 02:23 | User Profile
This is a somewhat long excerpt from my book, but this passage sharply illustrates what is so wrong with America today. Wise learned men such as Kennan most certainly was are denied speech in the American media while a limited lunatic such as Dan Rather certainly was and is are granted unlimited access.
[SIZE=4][B][CENTER]Idiocy in Somalia: Dan Rather the Illiterate[/CENTER][/B][/SIZE] [QUOTE]The great sage of American diplomacy, George Kennan, would reveal in September, 1993 his diary entry for December 9, 1992 when he saw on television American forces entering Somalia. Befitting his stature as one of the very few wise men in America, George Kennan noted his witnessing a dreadful error of American policy. Firstly, he believed the American intervention was designed to fix on a short term basis a problem which was much more complex. Mr. Kennan pointed out the people of Somalia were unable to govern themselves and the entire area was without government. Starvation seen on American television could not be cured by anything the United States was likely to do. The dreadful situation could not be put right without the installation of a government which would have to be very determined and ruthless. This government could not possibly be democratic as conditions for democracy had never existed in Somalia. Secondly, the American effort was extremely costly. This was injurious to American society as the decayed infrastructure, particularly in cities, was not being repaired for the ostensible lack of money. Mr. Kennan was unkind enough to attribute this gesture to President Bush, who may have wanted to be remembered for armed interventions in Africa and Asia. Mr. Bush had saddled his successor Mr. Clinton with the task of completing it, but with no responsibility for starting it.
How was Mr. Bush able to dispatch American forces to this desolate part of the world without going before Congress and requesting permission? This was possible because the Congress and much of the public had come to think of this intervention as necessary. Images of Somalia in the American media, especially television had caused an emotional reaction, not a thoughtful deliberate one. Ruefully Mr. Kennan concluded that if future American military interventions were to be controlled by popular emotional impulses, there would be no place for people like himself in making responsible deliberate decisions.
This essay provoked a response by an individual who gave his credentials as Anchor and Managing Editor of CBS News, Mr. Dan Rather. Mr. Rather started his retort by stating the advantage of hindsight in assessing situations. He accused Mr. Kennan of dusting off his diaries to show how smart he was while keeping other entries hidden. Mr. Rather accused Mr. Kennan and his hindsight of having blinders. Mr. Rather justified American intervention in Somalia because the United States had helped create the mess. No facts were given. What truly angered Mr. Rather was blaming of television. With all his customary sanctimony Mr. Rather said the duty of television was to give the American people the facts so they could make up their own minds. So defiant was Mr. Rather that he unequivocally stated that American television must not pull punches or play favorites. The American people would not let him or his brethren do this.
This witless, immature reply typical of Mr. Rather provoked a reasoned retort by Mr. Kennan who did note that his journal entry on the day when American military landed in Somalia could hardly be called "hindsight". Nor did he really mean to "blame" television as it was only doing what had come to be expected. What clearly irked Mr. Kennan was the statement by Mr. Rather that the job of television was giving facts to the American people. Fleeting disjointed visual images on a small screen which could not be recalled the day after had never been the "information" on which policy decisions concerning complicated international problems should be based. Television could not consult the rich voices of prior experience, nor could it outline the possible consequences and responses of decisions lightly taken. Mr. Kennan infinitely preferred the resources of the magnificent English language so polished and enriched over the centuries, but so grievously neglected under current American educational practices. Mr. Rather with the sum of his life experiences in American television would quarrel with the last judgment of Mr. Kennan.[/QUOTE]