The Foreign Service Journal, February 2004

Background of Soviet Foreign Policy,” which he wrote at the spe- cific request of James Forrestal in late January 1947. Drafted in his northwest corner office of Theodore Roosevelt Hall at the War College, this essay — the most famous of all his writings — later was published as “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs under the authorship of “X.” The article informed the readers of that influential quarterly that “the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive ten- dencies.” In the Kennan analysis, “Soviet pressure against the free institutions of the Western world is something that can be contained by the adroit and vig- ilant application of counterforce at a series of constant- ly shifting geographical and political points.” With this article, Kennan was accorded authorship of the contain- ment doctrine and his notoriety estab- lished. But it must be made crystal clear that Kennan never had an equiv- alent of copyright over the notion of containment. Containment, as expressed in the “X” article, repre- sented no more than a broad approach. It was not a detailed pre- scription for policy. It did not outline at any length what the United States should do. The temptation to characterize Kennan as a Moses-type figure descending to give the law of containment over to a dis- oriented group of American policy-makers should be resisted. Others would play a role in defining and enflesh- ing containment, and the doctrine would come to be understood only in light of these actions. This process had 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 25 When Franklin Roosevelt recognized the Soviet Union late in 1933, Kennan fortuitously was in Washington on leave.