Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by George F. Kennan (American Diplomat, Historian)

George F. Kennan (1904–2005,) fully George Frost Kennan, was an American writer and diplomat. He is deemed the chief architect of the U.S. containment policy against the Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured extensively and wrote scholarly histories of America’s relations with the USSR.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kennan graduated from Princeton in 1925 and joined the U.S. Foreign Service, working in listening posts around the USSR. During World War II, he served in the American legations in Berlin, Lisbon, and Moscow. In 1947, he was appointed a director of policy planning by Secretary of State George C Marshall.

Kennan promoted ‘containment,’ which thought that the USA could check the spread of communism through ideology and politics rather than war. This strategy was adopted by Secretary of State Dean Acheson, whom Kennan assisted as a principal adviser (1949–52,) and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Kennan consequently served as U.S. Ambassador in Moscow 1952–53 and Yugoslavia 1961–63. As professor of history at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton 1956–74, he revised his strategic judgments and called for U.S. disengagement from Europe.

A prolific and acclaimed author, Kennan won simultaneous Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards for Russia Leaves the War (1956) and Memoirs, 1925–50 (1967.) His other works include The Decision to Intervene (1958,) Memoirs, 1950–63 (1972,) The Cloud of Danger (1977,) Sketches from a Life (1989,) and At a Century’s Ending: Reflections, 1982–95 (1996.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by George F. Kennan

Heroism, the Caucasian mountaineers say, is endurance for one moment more.
George F. Kennan
Topics: Bravery, Heroism, One liners

We should not lose ourselves in vainglorious sohemes for changing human nature all over the planet. Rather, we should learn to view ourselves with a sense of proportion and Christian humility before the enormous complexity of the world in which it has been given us to live.
George F. Kennan
Topics: Life

The accords were fig leaves of democratic procedure to hide the nakedness of Stalinist dictatorship
George F. Kennan
Topics: Government

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