George Frost Kennan and the Policy of Containment

Abstract

Recent news accounts routinely describe the tenor of dialogue between the United States and the Soviet Union as increasingly hard-line and uncompromising. The Cold War atmosphere, it seems, has never been more frigid. Some impassioned observers contend that mankind is teetering ever more closely to the brink of a nuclear holocaust. Yet the definitive answer to the gnawing question as to how the world arrived at such a dangerous precipice remains elusive. Analysts in general, and historians in particular, have advanced numerous explanations for the rapid deterioration of the World War II Grand Alliance, but they have failed to arrive at a consensus. Their efforts, nevertheless, have led to a fuller understanding of this most important topic. Most scholars now agree on the need to focus on the immediate postwar period and the evolution of the policy of containment. Accordingly, the acknowledged " father" of that policy, George Frost Kennan, has become a subject of intense concern and controversy.