No American thought more deeply and comprehensively about Russia, the Cold War, and Eastern Europe than George Kennan. No American expressed thoughts in such elegant prose - precise, thoughtful, persuasive and even at times poetical. No American had a more significant impact on the post-World War II foreign policies of the United States. In addition to this, no American was as broadly honored in so many dimensions for his achievements, including historical literature, which was close to a sidelight in Kennan's long career. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Book Award (twice), the Pulitzer Prize (twice), and the Bancroft Prize in history. He was the President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a 50-year member of the faculty of the most distinguished academic faculty in America, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He was the American ambassador to the Soviet Union and to Yugoslavia at the most delicate moments in post-war Europe. He wrote deeply moving poetry as well as remarkably prescient foreign policy memoranda. His lectures, given around the world, were regularly packed, reflecting Kennan's reputation as well as his unique skills in communicating complex ideas with fluidity and force.
John Gaddis, one of the country's most accomplished students of the Cold War, is exceptionally able to write the definitive biography of Kennan. Professor Gaddis had the sole access to Kennan's papers and, over a period of twenty years, to Kennan himself. This has given him the ability to know the living man, to explore his thoughts - many of which changed substantively over Kennan's unusually long life -- in great detail, and to interview the major people in Kennan's life, his family, his friends, and many of the most important government officials in the United States and Europe who dealt with Kennan.
I found this biography to be one of the finest biography I have ever read for several reasons. I emerged with an understanding of the great role played by Kennan in teaching the United States government how the Soviet Union worked, what its objectives were, the methods that would be used by the Soviets, and how the United States should deal with this threat. He described what had to be done to contain the Soviet ambition, as it subverted and dominated almost all of Eastern Europe. He did this in the form of a long telegram to the State Department, sent in February 1946, only six months after the end of World War II. The thoughtfulness, perceptivity and clarity of the telegram had an effect on American policy for the remainder of the Cold War, up to the dismantlement of the Russian domination of Eastern Europe, beginning in the Reagan administration more than 30 years later.
Kennan was not an easy man; he had his faults, which Professor Gaddis discusses with the same evenness as he discusses his unique talents. Kennan was intensely insecure, an egotist, prickly, and at times arrogant. He had a difficult family life, although he deeply loved his wife, Annelise; their marriage incredibly lasted 74 years. Despite the fact that Kennan lived to the age of 101, he was almost continuously ill. His views changed many times, diverging entirely from earlier viewpoints and then frequently doubling back to the original pattern of thought. His attitudes and knowledge of the United States - its culture, its politics, its people - were crabby and dismissive. In fact, in some cases they were outright strange. At one point he decided that the United States should be divided into two countries, one comprising the Southern and Western states and the other made up of the Eastern and Midwest states. His knowledge of the Russian mind was, in fact, far more delicate and nuanced than his feel for the American mind.
This biography is just plain great. In every respect, I admired it. Gaddis' book treats the long scope of Kennan's life fairly and honestly. It is extremely well written, both in its clarity and, even more, in its ability to probe deeply into how Kennan's mind worked. Parts of the book, particularly those that deal with Kennan's inner thoughts, many of which are expressed in verse, are unbelievably moving. Although the book is long, at almost 700 pages, I only put it down with reluctance. I wanted to hear Gaddis tell me more about Kennan and his times.
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vittorio veltroni
On a good topic, a baffling book
Reviewed in Italy on January 26, 2017
