The Telegram and Reaction
In response to the expanding communist threat, United States’ ambassador to the Soviet Union George Frost Kennan wrote an 5.500 words telegram to Secretary of State James Byrne. Kennan was aware of the influential nature that the telegram would have on the incoming rivalry between the two nations, and therefore starts the telegram stating “Answer to Dept's 284, Feb 3 [13] involves questions so intricate, so delicate, so strange to our form of thought, and so important to analysis of our international environment that I cannot compress answers into single brief message… I hope, therefore, Dept will bear with me if I submit in answer to this question five parts.”
Through the five parts, Kennan analyzes Soviet form of thought and world views, explains how Soviet foreign policies are not based on ethics or alliances but on their own gain, and psychologically assesses the Soviet mindset shown through state propaganda and fanaticism. Finally, Kennan reaches the conclusion that the only way to stop the Soviet sphere of influence to stop propagating, is to implement containment, and help Europe and the world in order for them to side with the west.
The reception of the telegram was unconditionally positive and was "immediately reproduced and circulated on the highest levels of the government." Kennan was soon called back to the United States from his role as ambassador to the USSR, and was appointed director of the Policy Planning Staff. However, the Long Telegram was not only well-received among politicians, but also widely read among people due to its publication under the name “X Article” in the magazine Foreign Affairs.
Influencing the Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was heavily based on ideas proposed by Kennan in the Long Telegram, since containment was initially proposed on the second part of the Long Telegram. Kennan believed that the expansion of the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence was the greatest threat to the western world, and the only way to stop the Soviet Union from creating a powerful sphere of influence over the world was with containment.
Kennan observed that “soviet power, unlike that of Hitlerite Germany, is neither schematic nor adventuristic… It does not take unnecessary risks. Is impervious to logic of reason, and it is highly sensitive to logic of force,” meaning that the Soviet Union would not take the risk of going to war with the west for the sake of expanding. However, to achieve this, the west would have to impose their weapon superiority instead of their “logic of reason” to tell the Soviets to stop expanding.
The Origins of the Marshall Plan
The Long Telegram was the ideological foundation of the Marshall Plan, officially the European Recovery Program, which was an aid program designed to “rehabilitate the economies of European countries in order to create a stable conditions in which democratic institutions could survive.” This idea of aiding Europe reconstruct post-WWII is explained in the Long Telegram as something that would be crucial to prevent the spread of “world communism,” which resembles a “malignant parasite which feeds only on diseased tissue.”
Evaluation of Sources
Wilson D. Miscamble: George F. Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, 1947-1950.
The book was written in 1992 by Wilson Miscamble. The purpose of this book, as stated in the preface, is to carry through an “examination of Kennan’s involvement in policy-making,” which “serves as a prism through which to view the wider spectrum of discussion and decision involved in devising the main lines of foreign policy during the crucial postwar period in American diplomacy.” The book focuses on the postwar period up to the pre-Korean War period of US foreign policy, with the Long Telegram as the focal point of the most important foreign policy decisions such as the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine. The book is well documented with primary sources from the studied era, and an elaborate analysis of the Long Telegram as well as Kennan’s involvement in US foreign policy making through in that time period.
George Frost Kennan: The Long Telegram.
The telegram itself is long almost 5.500 words, and was written in February, 1946. The telegram was a classified document and
Analysis
In the first part, Kennan analyses Soviet form of thought, believes, and views of the world; identifying the Soviet mind-set as condemning the “antagonistic ‘capitalist encirclement’ with which in the long run there can be no permanent peaceful coexistence.” The second explains how the implementation of containment to stall the Soviet influence and power in Europe was vital, and discouraged the US’s plans to cooperate with the USSR and their sphere of influence.
The third part of the telegram outlines the current official, and underlying policies of the USSR in regards to the rest of the capitalist world. Kennan highlights that Soviet foreign policy are not based on ethics, morals, nor alliances, but for the sole benefit of the USSR and the communist cause, citing as an example that their position in the UNO was only important to them as long as their ideal of world influence “can be favorably pursued.” The fourth section of the Long Telegram deals with “what we may expect by way of implementation of basic Soviet policies on unofficial or subterranean plane, i.e. on plane for which Soviet government accepts no responsibility.” These include espionage, discredit of Western countries, and the “removal from office” of “individual governments which stand in path of Soviet purposes.”
In the fifth part, Truman assesses the Soviet Union from inside, and analyses the mindset of the Soviet administration. This part of the telegram is a psychological analysis of Soviet beliefs, propaganda, and fanaticism. According to Kennan, the USSR believes that “with the US there can be no permanent modus vivendi.” Kennan refers to the Soviet administration as a party that has “complete power of disposition over energies of one of world's greatest peoples and resources of world's richest national territory,” implying that the Russian people are being brain washed and in some way controlled by their leaders.
Having observed this Kennan dictated the technique of containment, which would become the heart of the Truman Doctrine. “For this reason, the Soviet Union can easily withdraw--and usually does when strong resistance is encountered at any point. Thus, if the adversary has sufficient force and makes clear his readiness to use it, he rarely has to do so.”
Kennan states that the key to stopping communism from spilling from the Soviet Union into the devastated European continent was to “formulate and put forward for other nations a much more positive and constructive picture of sort of world we (the US) would like to see than we have put forward in the past. It is not enough to urge people to develop political processes similar to our own… they are seeking guidance rather than responsibilities. We should be better able than Russians to give them this. And unless we do, Russians certainly will.”
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Long Telegram was the most influential factor in the United States policy making during the beginning of the Cold War. It was the first classified document that was widely spread to the public and gained public as well as governmental approval. The Long Telegram was the strategic basis for the Truman Doctrine, as Kennan is known as the “the father of containment.” Furthermore, it was the ideological foundation of the Marshall Plan, since Kennan firmly believed that the United States’ should play an important role in European Rehabilitation to stop “world communism.”
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highondope (student)
