Todd boyer and the rest of the Kansas City Public Library staff for inviting me here and setting up this wonderful venue. Appropriates very its an appropriate time and place to talk about George Kennan and his diaries. First of all, George Kennan was a midwesterner, very proud of being a midwesterner. He grew up in milwaukee and was conscious of the fact milwaukee was not california. Its also appropriate, this place is appropriate to talk about kennan because kennans most productive years in the government was as a member of the truman administration, and of course, harry truman grew up about 40 miles from here in independence, missouri. Missouri to try to win over the audience here. [laughter] place,ngs in terms of its appropriate for me to talk about kennan because adam starr who is the sponsor of this event has himself written and published a piece on George Kennan, and i had lunch with adam today and learned quite a bit. That is very much appropriate. In terms of place, i think its appropriate for me to be talking about kennan today because you to going to be listening John Quincy Adams tomorrow, and kennan was an admirer of John Quincy Adams. Kennans quite Famous Television on fulbrights hearing regarding the vietnam war, and kennedy was one of the first kennan was one of the first articulate members of the establishment to speak out against the war. Kennan finished his testimony, which got a standing ovation from the committee kennan finished his testimony with a quote from John Quincy Adams. In 2014 to time here be talking about George Kennan, one thing that strikes me about kennans writings is the continuing relevance of what kennan had to say about American Foreign policy, the continuing relevance today even here nine years after his death, and i think you will see some of that in the entries i will be reading. Most of my talk this evening will consist of the actual words of kennan, far more eloquent than i could ever hope to be, but i want to start off with some introductory material to place kennan and his diary in context. In terms of his career, kennan grew up in milwaukee. He goes off to princeton university, graduated in 1925, and then he entered the Foreign Service. He became a Foreign Service officer from 1926 to 1953. He basically got fired in 1952, 1953, and i can talk about that if you want, but his career lasted until 1953. After he left the state he became a professor at the institute for advanced study at princeton where he became a historian, even though he didnt have any formal training as a historian, and wrote 20 books, including several books that won the pulitzer prize, the National Book award, and virtually every other prize available. As kennan once said, he had not won the nobel prize, but that might be coming the following year. [laughter] it never did,. It never did come. Here is kennan writing at his home in princeton. The kennan diary is valuable because it tells us about five important things. First, it illuminates the personal and intellectual life of americas most famous Foreign Policy strategist. Second, it reflects on recurring problems in American Foreign policy. From, the diary extending 1916 to 2004, and kennan lived 1904 to 2005. Fromiary runs 88 years 1916 to 2004. Diary instructs us on the changes in American Society over those 88 years. Fourth, kennan wrestled thoughtfully with basic human issues, such as the boundaries of love, responsibility, and ones relationship to god. Kennans recording of his physical, psychological, and intellectual decline at the end of his 101yearold life, we discover the true process of dying as small gifts are taken away little by little. His example suggests how each of us can come if we try hard enough, fade into history with dignity as he certainly did. In the interest of full disclosure, i should warn you what the kennan diaries are not. They are not a full record of kennans life over that 88year period. Entriese no in indicating his reaction to pearl harbor, the kennedy assassination, or even 2001, 9 11. Kennan also went months without writing in the diary or simply writing monday and things such as the weather. Nor does he reveal big secrets about u. S. Foreign policy or his personal life. Kennan remained the discrete diplomat. He wouldve been appalled at edward snowden. He fully expected his diary to be read by others, and he was determined to protect his privacy and that of his family and intimates. Nevertheless, he was, despite some egregious blind spots, and kennan did have some agree just blind spots in terms of his prejudices despite these blind spots, he was perceptive. He was often wise and farseeing. He wrote down for the sake of cross posterity much of what he said and thought. The toughest part of writing the book was selecting from the 8100 pages of the original, selecting what came to be 700 pages, and i can assure you that it was tough , but selecting the entries for. Onights talk, i was rigorous going to discuss the 700 pages in their entirety, i assure you, but i wanted to keep this talk short enough so theres time for q a and for people to ask the questions that youre interested in. What i have tried to do is give you a flavor of the diary at all the various stages of kennans life, from the 11yearold boy to the centenarian. Let me read some selections. 12. Is kennan at the age of the diary begins, it says, diary old. Orge kennan, 11 years born february 16, 1904. In this simple little book, a record of the day i cast so i afterwards may look back upon my happy past. George kent and, 11 years. Kennan grew up heres a picture of his family he grew up in milwaukee in an uppermiddleclass family composed of his father, his stepmother, his three older sisters, and his younger halfbrother. That is kennan in the back row there at the age of 14. Georges mother florence died when he was only two months old. Succumbed toce had peritonitis from a burst appendix, her son grew up believing that she died giving birth to him. That guilt would help foster kennans lifelong melancholy. He said he was a happy little boy at 11, but for much of his life after that, he doesnt sound very happy, as youll see. Im going to jump ahead to 1928. This is kennan as a newly fledged diplomat, 1928. The date was may 6, 1928. Kennan was in berlin. This is five years before the United States recognized the bolshevik government, communist union,ent of the soviet but the u. S. Government believed it would need to have russian experts. The state department started a program of intensive training of a small group of Foreign Service officers who would learn russian literature, russian language, and russian history. They sent kennan to berlin for three years to master those subjects. 1928 writingn in might window overlooks the square in front of the schon and berg lighthouse. Its a great place for political demonstrations. Tonight, the role of a drum called attention to a demonstration coming across the square. Ands no colorful enthusiastic procession. It is a small group of well disciplined social democrats with one or two batters and a couple of squeaky instruments. They passed by my window, four abreast, women and men, unimposing. They are not the virile proletarians of the communist posters. I doubt despite their professed socialism whether they are members of the proletariat at all. They are more apt to be remembers of the great overlap of the classes, the bourgeoisie, each with a few cents in is savings bank. ,t is an unimpressive parade yet there is significance in its quietness and unpretentiousness. Something stronger than all the blaring and roaring of the theseists and fascists, poor people from berlin, they have carried the idealism of the german character through the horrors of war and revolution and economic collapse, and on their narrow shoulders rests the fate of future generations. Yearsrse, this is five before the nazi takeover in germany. 1930is kennan in november, during the depths of the great depression, and kennan, like many other thinking people during the depression, came to the conclusion that capitalism is a system that failed, and there was something basically wrong with the system and it would not prevail in the future. Here is kennan writing he is still in berlin, by the way has it never occurred to anyone to accept socialism in the economic sense without its political connotations . Capitalist countries have a choice. They can let their economic chaosures work in such that it collapses on its own accord. This collapse would drag the cultural achievements of centuries down with it and succumb to a new middle age of as our abandoned tropical plantation succumbs to the vegetation of the jungle. Or the capitalist countries can separate politics from economics, and their intelligent classes can put business on a socialist platform from above without turning political power over to the proletariat. If the intelligent classes in these countries, meaning western europe, if the intelligent classes in these countries havent enough force and stamina to do this, then western european civilization is already dead and gone, and there is no hope. We are jumping ahead here to december 20, 1933. This is right at the moment when kennan enters the soviet union for the first time as the Principal Assistant of the First American ambassador to the soviet Union William bullet. September 20. Ated kennan is talking about the events of 10 days earlier, september 10. The train bearing the First American ambassador to the soviet union crossed the polishsoviet border in the early twilight of a late december afternoon. The deserted forest at the border zone crowded the single tracks on either side, silent, snowcovered, and foreboding. Next to the barbed wire stood a Century Tower in a clearing, and on top of it was the figure of a polish soldier with a gun and fixed a bayonet, his coat turned up against the intense cold. A short distance beyond the border, the train slowed down at a Little Cottage besides the tracks, and the soviet Border Guards with their long coats and the blue caps of the secret police came on board. A few minutes later, there were lights and voices outside the windows, and the train pulled up to the station. People crowded around. That individual turned out to be before and officers agent in mix turned out to be the foreign officers agent in minsk. I set up nearly that whole first night looking out the train window. To me, this First Contact with the soviet union has an exceptional meaning. I spent five years in intensive preparation for it, and a greater command of the russian language than i ever encountered in any foreigner born or bread outside russia. I had a knowledge of russian history and literature equivalent to that of the average educated russian of the old school, meaning the tsarist times. Lastly, i had spent the two years compiling and analyzing soviet Economic Statistics as a principal occupation for the state department, collecting materials for a biography on Anton Chekhov as a hobby. Im going to jump ahead seven years to june 14, 1940. 1940,s a period, june 14, when the United States was still neutral in world war ii. The war had begun in europe in 1939, and germany had invaded france and holland and scandinavia in june 1940. Working at the American Embassy in berlin, and hes on a train. Left berlin shortly before 1 00 on a new express trip to the hague. Prisoners, probably polish, were working on the fields between berlin and hanover. The sun beat hard on the fields, and the armed guards kept the prisoners lined up in neat rows. We began to encounter long trains of boxcars with fresh prisoners from the west. The only openings for light and air were little aperture is cut high up near the ends of the cars, and through these one could see the crowded heads, the pale faces, and the wounded eyes that stared full of boredom and homesickness out over the cold severity of the north german plane. Plain. I looked at these and the peasant women in the fields and reflectedy yards, and that at one time when individual conviction and determination plays a decisive part in warfare, and its the free people who made the better soldiers. But now in the age of the machine, the slave people have the advantage. In june 1944, the same month as the dday invasion of normandy, kennan was working in the American Embassy in london. Theune, he was named as number two, the chief assessment to the American Ambassador to russia. As the number two, the chief assistant to the American Ambassador to russia. Kennan had to go around the bulk of europe since the germans held almost all of that territory, so by military transport, kennan flew from italy to london to iraq to iran and then to russia. June, june 23 to 25th of june, he spent those days in baghdad and wrote a few days later, and i think its an interesting entry. The chief impression of baghdad at that point, iraq was a british colony the chief impression of baghdad in the summer was one of claustrophobia. All day we were barricaded in the embassy, inside the embassy temperaturesre never fellinsid, would rarely fall below 90, but it would get even hotter outside. You could see the dusty wind, the eucalyptus trees, and the country in the sunshine of the desert, the sunshine was no nuances, no shade, no shadows. Would only strike, penetrate, and resolve with unbending, hostile power. Nto this inferno of heat what are the possibilities for . Merican in baghdad survive onlyn along the banks of the great rivers which traverse its desert, but it is unfathomable to human health. And debilitated by disease, all manners of fall of theand the society by an indefinite how to rest. People have now commented just enough contact with western life flights upper class has dispersed for many things that can be obtained only in the west. They would use it as a foil for the british as it had escaped from the restraint of the british power. If we give them these things, if we give them this aid, we can enjoy a momentary favor in part of the interest of receiving them, but to the extent that we aided them, we weaken british influence, and whether we realize it or not, we take responsibility for the actions of the iraqis. If the british are unable to restrain them, that we have ourselves at least in part to blame. Then it is up to us to take appropriate measures. Are we willing to bear this responsibility . Our government is incapable of promulgating a longterm, consistent policy toward areas of remote territory. Actions of Foreign Affairs, convulsive reactions to a political life dominated by vocal minority. Those americans who remember something of apparent air life of their country will find it hard to view the deserts of iraq without a pang of interest and the possibility of reclamation of economic development. The trees that once grew here, could they not grow here again . Could they not be inextricable from exhaustive resources of nature . But if they are seeking to escape from reality, such americans may even pursue these dreams and enter upon the long and stony road, which would lead to their fruition. If they are willing to recall the sad state of conservation in their own country and the vast amounts of social improvement to be accomplished at home and the inevitable limitations of the efficacy of democracy interfering with Foreign Affairs , then they will restrain their andtement at the silence the possibility of the deserts and will return, like disappointed but dutiful children, to the sad deficiencies and problems of their native land. Ine is kennan in leningrad 1945, october, 1945. I have been in leningrad just three days of my life, and that was like coming home. I had read so much about it, and through the years, i have spent , ithe Baltic States had become to like the wintry nature. This is a pointed community of the world, a great subsidy with a spark of human gene this that has always human genius that has always had do in penetrate the darkness, dampness, and cold. The human spirit has acquired for that very reason a strange warmth, a strange intensity, a strange beauty. I know that in this city, where i have never lived, theres never enough by some strange quirk of fate a previous en theerhaps . Be positive to seo and love a portion of my own life, and that this is something which no american will ever understand and no russian ever believe. Oh, we have to im sorry. Russia, their in daughter, grace, is not very happy about being here. [laughter] in there is kennan in berlin 1940. Is kennan at his desk in the state department. This is something that, you know, i wrote at the beginning of the chapter in 1948, his background. Despite his standing as americas premier strategist of the cold war, kennan in 1948 began diverging from the truman administrations policy. Quietlycoming had criticized the global reach of doctrine, with a focus on aid to greece and turkey rather than promised aid to the entire world. Kennan advocated a career operations and brought propaganda in Eastern Europe in carefully controlled situations. Kennan also saw the cold war as a limited engagement. Confrontation with moscow, he believed, should be political rather than military. That is a point made in his recent paper. Areas that kennan regarded as chinay important, such as or vietnam. Moreover, kennan suggested in february 1948 that with the recovery already underway in western europe, the time might soon be ripe for serious negotiations with moscow. In describing the diplomat, the best way to conduct such negotiations, kennan and fax nominated himself. Inle most officials washington and in moscow in 1948 were escalating the conflict, kennan, although still very much a cold warrior, was also beginning to look for ways to ease tensions, and that wo