The Sources of Soviet Conduct by George F. Kennan

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Recommended: History of the cold war

“The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in 1947 by George F. Kennan, the article impacted and created a different perspective on the spread of Communism and the Soviet Union. Kennan’s philosophy behind stopping Communism from spreading was through containment, even though the telegraph did not have the word containment in it. The Truman Doctrine was established and the number of Presidents that viewed war in foreign soil. Kennan continued to fight Communism and had inputs and theories on other conflicts to include Vietnam and Korea.

George Kennan was an observer of the Russian Civil War aftermath. Kennan served as a Soviet front for two years in Moscow as chief of mission and a consultant for Ambassador Averell Harriman. At age 44, Kennan decided to write one of the most influential statements in the early years of the Cold War “The Sources of Soviet Conduct”. “The article was signed by ‘X’ although everyone in the know knew that authorship was Kennan’s and the Cold War gave the United States its historic opportunity to assume leadership of what would eventually be described as the ‘free world’” (Kreis, 2004). Kennan’s article in 1946 was actually sent as a telegram and influenced the Truman Doctrine which entailed how to contain the Soviet Union. “Kennan argued that the Soviets, motivated by a combination of Marxist-Leninist ideology and traditional Russian security concerns, were bent on expansion and were irrevocable opposed to the United States and the West, as well as to capitalism and democracy” (Rector, 2011).

Since Kennan lived in Moscow since 1933 he had a great understanding of the Soviet government worked and was influenced through the years. Kennan’s stated in The Sources of Soviet Conduct “the political personal...

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...istoryguide.org: http://www.historyguide.org/europe/kennan.html

Pike, J. (2011, February 25). Cold War. Retrieved March 19, 2011, from www.globalsecurity.org: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/cold_war.htm

Rector. (2011). Foreign Affairs. Retrieved March 19, 2011, from www.millercenter.org: http://millercenter.org/president/truman/essays/biography/5

Simkin, J. (n.d.). Truman Doctrine. Retrieved March 19, 2011, from www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAtrumanD.htm

Thompson, N. (2006, July 1). Mirror Image. Retrieved March 19, 2011, from www.commondreams.org: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0701-29.htm

X. (n.d.). The Sources of Soviet Conduct. Retrieved March 19, 2011, from www.web.ebschohost.com: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=15&sid=8c5abe4d-6d08-4d08-bc5c-e1d931ed30dc%40sessionmgr13&vid=8

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