George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan
George Frost Kennanwas an American diplomat and historian. He was known best as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War on which he later reversed himself. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histories of the relations between USSR and the United States. He was also one of the group of foreign policy elders known as "The Wise Men"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth16 February 1904
CountryUnited States of America
George F. Kennan quotes about
eye jealous russia
The jealous and intolerant eye of the Kremlin can distinguish, in the end, only vassals and enemies, and the neighbors of Russia, if they do not wish to be one, must reconcile themselves to being the other.
time guests members
A guest of one's time and not a member of the household.
elephants united-states should
The United States should not jump around like an elephant frightened by a mouse.
men enemy privilege
It is an undeniable privilege of every man to prove himself right in the thesis that the world is his enemy; for if he reiterates it frequently enough and makes it the background of his conduct he is bound eventually to be right.
country real countries-of-the-world
We are, if territory and population be looked at together, one of the great countries of the world a monster country, one might say, along with others such as China, India, the recent Soviet Union, and Brazil. And there is a real question as to whether "bigness" in a body politic is not an evil in itself, quite aside from the policies pursued in its name.
ideas abuse atheism
The truth is sometimes a poor competitor in the market place of ideas – complicated, unsatisfying, full of dilemmas, always vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse.
country thinking achievement
A foreign policy aimed at the achievement of total security is the one thing I can think of that is entirely capable of bringing this country to a point where it will have no security at all.
war thoughtful iraq
War has a momentum of its own and it carries you away from all thoughtful intentions when you get into it. Today, if we went into Iraq, like the president would like us to do, you know where you begin. You never know where you are going to end.
tissues world communism
World communism is like [a] malignant parasite which feeds on diseased tissue
military war fighting
Anyone who has ever studied the history of American diplomacy, especially military diplomacy, knows that you might start in a war with certain things on your mind as a purpose of what you are doing, but in the end, you found yourself fighting for entirely different things that you had never thought of before ... In other words, war has a momentum of its own and it carries you away from all thoughtful intentions when you get into it. Today, if we went into Iraq, like the president would like us to do, you know where you begin. You never know where you are going to end.
life christian humility
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.
order political would-be
A political society does not live to conduct foreign policy; it would be more correct to say that it conducts foreign policy in order to live.
people secret atheism
Do people ever reflect, one wonders, that the best way to protect against the penetration of one's secrets by others is to have the minimum of secrets to conceal?
public-opinion opinion force
Public opinion, or what passes for public opinion, is not invariably a moderating force in the jungle of politics.