The Foreign Service Journal, February 2004

Kennan began his study of Russian language, literature, history and cul- ture while serving briefly as vice con- sul in Tallinn in Estonia and as Third Secretary in Riga, Latvia. From 1929 to 1931 he pursued formal studies at the University of Berlin and then returned as third secretary to the Russian Section of the legation in Riga where the United States, in the absence of formal diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, kept a wary watch on the activities of Stalin and his associates. From this vantage point Kennan handled reportage on Soviet economic affairs from 1931 to 1933 and, as he later put it with understated precision, “grew to mature interest in Russian affairs.” A Lasting View of the Soviet Union When Franklin Roosevelt recognized the Soviet Union late in 1933, Kennan fortuitously was in Washington on leave and was recruited by the dashing William Bullitt, whom FDR had named ambassador to Moscow, to accompany him to establish the embassy. He served in Moscow until the summer of 1937 and here at close range, more so than in Riga, he formed lasting views of the Soviets and their system. It was not a pretty picture and the young diplomat had no incli- nation to disguise Soviet tyranny and barbarism. He never succumbed to any temptation to gloss over the horror and brutality of Stalin’s regime. A decade after his first stint in Moscow, Kennan wrote Dean Acheson that “whoever, peering from the comfortable distance of the bourgeois-liberal world, views Stalin as just another successful political leader pushing his people firmly but roughly along the approved path of history, has failed to grasp the cata- clysmic horror of modern totalitari- anism.” He explained that Stalin had succeeded “in proving that man’s degradation can be just as effectively ‘organized’ as his dignity; that con- tempt for the human individual can be made an acceptable and practica- ble basis for government; and that — whether or not it is possible to create a Heaven on earth — it is definitely possible and even profitable to create a Purgatory and a Hell.” Of course, Kennan held Joseph E. Davies, Bullitt’s successor as ambassador and a Sovietophile of sorts, in contempt for his efforts to explain away the Great Purge trials and other dastardly aspects of Stalin’s rule. But Kennan’s voice carried no weight at this point, and Davies recommended that he be transferred from Moscow for “his health.” So 1938 found him back in Washington assigned to the Russian desk in the State Department. This was his first Washington assignment and it did not last long. He soon returned to Europe, taking up a posting in Prague on Sept. 29, 1938 — the very day of the Munich Conference. Kennan’s reputation in the Foreign Service slowly grew, and his service in Prague enhanced it. He had strong views on the role of the Foreign Service officer and he strove to live up to his own standards. He had contempt for the effete, prissy and overly social dimen- sion of much of what passed for diplomacy in Europe. In a letter to his friend Charles Thayer he set forth a vision for a Foreign Service corps “who will be scholars as well as gentlemen, [and] who will be able to wield the pen as skillfully as the tea-cup.” Kennan reported extensively from Prague, but few read what he wrote. The sense of being ignored gnawed deep into his sen- sitive personality but it did not dissuade him from offering his views in long memorandums. More would follow and these eventually would be read, but his hour had yet to come. With the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939, Kennan was transferred to the American embassy in Berlin where, now first secretary, he served as administrative officer until the attack on Pearl Harbor and the German declaration of war against the United States a few days later. He was taken into cus- tody, along with his embassy staff, and interned for five months. Upon his release Kennan served first, during F O C U S F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 23 Kennan had a long road to travel before exerting real influence over policy. Wilson D. (Bill) Miscamble, C.S.C., is a priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross and serves as associate professor in the History Department of the University of Notre Dame. His book, George F. Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy , 1947-1950 (Princeton University Press, 1992), received the Harry S. Truman Book Award. He is the author of other books and articles, including “Rejected Architect and Master Builder: George Kennan, Dean Acheson and Postwar Europe” ( Review of Politics , Summer 1996).