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George F. Kennan: An American Life (2011)

by John Lewis Gaddis(Favorite Author)

4.09 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1594203121 (ISBN13: 9781594203121)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Penguin Press HC, The

review 1: Great biography that I highly recommend to anyone with an interest in U.S. foreign policy or diplomatic or Cold War history. Kennan was a career Foreign Service Officer when he wrote his long telegram on how to handle relations with the Soviet Union shortly after the end of WWII. He more than anyone else articulated what became the U.S.'s containment strategy that allowed us to successfully navigate the Cold War with only a few misadventures (most of which were contrary to Kennan's advice). He was also the principal architect of the Marshall Plan, the main instigator and first director of the State Department's Policy Planning office which prioritizes and coordinates long-term foreign policy objectives, instrumental in the early National Security Council, an essential v... moreoice in the first years of the Navy War College, and an ambassador personally PNG'd (found persona non grata) by Stalin and an important part of President Kennedy's foreign policy team serving as the ambassador to Yugoslavia. Oh, and a brilliant writer who won two Pulitzer prizes. Despite so much to praise in Kennan's life, Gaddis was critical and fair in dealing with his subject.
review 2: A brilliant, exhaustive and beautifully written feat of near genius, Gaddis's biography of George F. Kennan was a well deserved recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. Obviously, a must read for anyone interested in Kennan and 20th century US foreign policy. Kennan (the public and the personal) and his times pop alive on this pages. Highly recommended for those who lived in the American Century and those living in its aftermath. less

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