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How Did a Single Cable From Moscow Define the Cold War? - The Architect of Containment and the Militarization of American Foreign Policy | Sleepy Facts About History
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In February 1946, an American diplomat in Moscow dictated an eight-thousand-word cable to Washington that would name the strategy of an emerging conflict. George Kennan’s Long Telegram provided a coherent framework for understanding Soviet behavior, arguing that Russian insecurity and Marxist-Leninist ideology drove the Soviet Union to expand wherever it met no resistance. He proposed a strategy of patient, firm, and calibrated counter-pressure at selected points of strategic importance—a…
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