'Containment, George Kennan and today's world' Posted : 2021-03-15 16:51 By Arthur I. Cyr "We must formulate and put forward for other nations a much more positive and constructive picture … than we have put forward in the past." This is from the famous "Long Telegram" sent from Moscow to Washington by diplomat George F. Kennan in early 1946. This year marks the 75th anniversary of that event. Kennan's advocacy of a "containment" policy toward the Soviet Union had profound impact on the Truman and successor administrations. The alliance against Nazi Germany, vital to victory in World War II, collapsed soon thereafter. Soviet leaders' efforts to force Britain, France and the United States out of Berlin sparked four decades of Cold War. The Korean War made the conflict global.