AMERICAN DIPLOMACY-1900-1950

by George F. Kennan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 28, 1951

The now famous ""Mr. X"" article on The Sources of Soviet Conduct and a subsequent one on America and the Soviet Future which appeared in Foreign Affairs brought George F. Kennan of the State Department sharply to public attention. Both articles are here included in the appendix of a book consisting mainly of six lectures. Together, they present not a chronological study of fifty years of American diplomacy, as the title suggests, but an attempt to assess certain factors in the past that may help to explain the deficiencies and trends of the present. He views the Spanish-American War as a preface to the 20th century, an aggressive wedge indicating the United States' new imperialism. The John Hays' Open Door policy notes provided a next stoplight, roting back into Britain's efforts to offset Russian aggression in the Orient, and setting a sort of moral interference pattern with no implementation on our part. Action in the field of foreign policy he sees as cumulative. At no point did we attempt to assess the realties of power politics. With World War I we arrived at a peace with the germs of future tragedies written into it. With World War II we failed to accept the fact that the Western democracies were on the losing side, militarily, without the collaboration of a totalitarian power at a cost we never defined. And never have we accepted the limitations of any war as a vehicle for achievement of any goal. Diplomacy in a modern world operates in a vacuum between challenge and response, with weakness of such machinery and concept. He deplores the inadequacies of the legalistic approach to international affairs, the immaturity of our concepts of right and wrong. But the alternatives he offers he recognizes demand education of an unready public....Not easy reading, but provocative and challenging.

Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1951

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Univ. of Chicago

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1951

Categories: NONFICTION