A TRIBUTE TO US DIPLOMAT GEORGE F. KENNAN

George F. Kennan, the great American diplomat and foreign policy scholar, died in March 2005 at the age of 101. In the early 1980s when I was conducting research in Washington and the Truman Library for a book on the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, I came across some of his correspondence with various officials. To his credit, Kennan understood the significance of pursuing a policy of containment of Stalin's USSR by emphasizing the economic and political options rather than the military option which many Cold Warriors seeking to build their careers advocated. Kennan expressed reservations about military and counter-insurgency operations in Greece during the Civil War (1946-1949), while he was an enthusiastic supporter and one of the architects of the Marshall Plan, which he believed is the best way to combat the spread of Communism and at the same time strengthen the U.S. politically and economically. By the end of the Vietnam War, Kennan had changed some of his earlier views regarding U.S.-USSR relations, stressing a policy of engagement to prevent not just a possible superpower conflict, but to resolve conflicts between the satellites of the U.S. and USSR.  Unlike many who viewed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as an offensive move coinciding with the Iranian and Nicaraguan revolutions, Kennan saw it from a defensive perspective, arguing that the Soviets often acted out of fear and anxienty, rather than a desire to acquire more spheres of influence so that they could antagonize the West. Nor was he encouraged that the U.S. resorted to counter-insurgency operations in Central America, especially when the revelations came out in 1986 about the illegal deals to funds the contras in Nicaragua by selling weapons to Iran, among other such short-sighted and reckless foreign policy adventures. Like McNamara, whose views also evolved since he was defense secretary, Kennan dropped the ideological rhetoric of the early Cold War, and became more pragmatic about U.S. foreign policy, earning respect among centrists and even leftists.  An advocate of constructive co-existence with the Communist bloc, Kennan was a reflective man with astute instincts about U.S. foreign policy which he viewed as an expression of the country's history, institutions, domestic and global interests, and always from a pragmatic perspective that earned him respect around the world. Kennan leaves a rich legacy with his many books, articles, interviews, having influenced countless scholars, journalists, and politicians since the 1930s. It is unfortunate that people of his towering intellect and sense of realism are absent from leadership positions in the State Department today. A new Kennan or perhaps several like are needed to deal with greater pragmatism and less ideological baggage.  Regional conflicts and balance of power issues like Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have remained a dead weight on US foreign policy. US bilateral and multilateral relations with the Great Powers also require a new direction toward greater global cooperation to deal effectively with vital issues from debt insolvency for the Third World to degradation to ecosystem and energy needs for the 21st century.