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American Diplomacy

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This slim volume offers a good look at George F. Kennan's brand of realism, and the implications of this for his views on US diplomacy.

One of the major themes that emerges here: Kennan's skepticism that the U.S. tends to over-moralize in its foreign policy, at the expense of being able to appreciate power realities, to the detriment of our national interest.

For example, Kennan argues that had the U.S. given more credence to European political concerns prior to WWI, and recognized that these impacted U.S. security, then America might have been able to bring its influence to bear on Europe and help bring the senseless destruction of WWI to an earlier end. Kennan believes that a proper appraisal of U.S. interests at stake would have involved raising a large army before WWI, which could have backed up U.S. diplomacy.

Whether or not one agrees with Kennan's observations and assertions, this text prompts deeper reflection about the major impulses that have shaped, and continue to shape, U.S. foreign policy.

Readers should buy the later version of this book, which includes lectures from 1984, where Kennan discusses how his views evolved over the years. The book I am reviewing here is only a series of 1950 lectures, plus Kennan's famous "Sources of Soviet Conduct" article in Foreign Affairs, and another one, "America and the Russian Future."

George F. Kennan, "American Diplomacy" (1951)


The United States is in a precarious position. Since WW II its security has been threatened as never before. George F. Kennan, in his book "American Diplomacy" (1951) examines American foreign policy during the past fifty years to explain the diminished security of the United States. He looks into the American policy during the Spanish American War, the "Open Door" in the Orient, WWI, and WWII. Presented as a series of lectures, Kennan concludes that United States foreign relations should return to a concept of neither a legalistic nor a moralistic approach to diplomacy, but rather an approach as a problem in positive power relationships with a workable balance of power as its objective.

The book is significant for its influence on the major United States policy of containment during the nineteen-fifties and the present. As a policy to combat communist aggression, containment was recently under attack by Senator Fulbright.(a George Washington U. alumnus) who believes that the United States is over extended. With the crisis in Vietnam, one must consider whether there is credence to Fulbright's view and whether Kennan's policy is now out of date and inadvisable to continue. None-the-less the significance of Kennan's book "American Diplomacy" remains. Whether containment continues as a strong American policy or not, it will have served as a bulwark against communism for many years.

Kennan admits he is "a novice in the field of diplomatic history," but many years of personal experience are brought to bear. He is a former United States ambassador to the Soviet Union and to Yugoslavia, and has been at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. He is a winner of the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes for history and also the National Book award. In his book "American Diplomacy 1900-1950, Kennan presents an argument - an analysis of the past and a conclusion based on this analysis. The author suggests rather than demands. "To avoid destruction the United States need only to measure up to its own best traditions and prove itself worthy of preservation as a great nation."

Kennan discusses the major issues, but does not omit detail. A good argument is all inclusive, and his is a good argument! In mentioning territorial acquisitions of the year 1898 as the first extensions of United States sovereignty beyond the continent of North America, Kennan is carefull to mention Samoa, where the United States only shared control, as a possible exception. A book of argument relies on the presentation of facts and the inferences drawn from them. Succeeding in this, the author's organization is such that the reader is taken from the beginning of the twentieth century to the middle with a continuing appraisal of United States foreign relations. In concluding his discussion on the Spanish American War, Kennan states the issues and problems of that time are the ones of today, "...and that, whereas the men of 1898 could afford to be mistaken in their answers to them, our generation longer has this luxury."

This is true. By the year 1900 the United States had become power with world-wide significance and one which could he affected by distant events. But at no previous time did the threat of complete annihilation face the United States as it does today. Circumstances have changed. When the United States emerged as a great power it was one among many: today it is one of two.

The reader is given a well thought out and precisely stated delivery. The book is compact, well written, and direct in presentation. American Diplomacy is a book invaluable for training in diplomacy. We remember, however, that while it was copyrighted in 1951, it is still timely in that the cold war continues and American security is still threatened. Important. lessons can be learned which have a bearing on past and present United States policy.

[Presented as originally written while a student at George Washington University. Diplomatic History 182, March 11, 1965. My grade was "B-"]