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Pacific Historical Review

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Kennan, Containment, and the Color Line
Clayton R. Koppes
Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 82 No. 1, February 2013; (pp. 95-118) DOI: 10.1525/phr.2013.82.1.95
Clayton R. Koppes
The author teaches in the history department at Oberlin College.
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George F. Kennan: An American Life. By John Lewis Gaddis. (New York, Penguin, 2011. xxx + 784 pp. $39.95 cloth, $22 paper)

Abstract

George F. Kennan is renowned as the author of the containment doctrine and subsequently as a critic of American Cold War policy. But other elements of his thought, which have been neglected, are integral to a reconsideration of his stature. He distrusted democracy and proposed ways to limit its expression, discounted movements for human rights in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, believed Hispanics posed a threat to the United States, and often argued against the national liberation aspirations in the Third World (which he considered largely irrelevant to Great Power diplomacy). He failed to grasp the connection between the U.S. civil rights movement and foreign policy. These weaknesses limited his usefulness as a policy adviser and still cloud his legacy as America’s “conscience.”

  • George F. Kennan
  • democracy
  • human rights
  • race
  • Third World
  • Eastern Europe
  • © 2013 by the Regents of the University of California

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Vol. 82 No. 1, February 2013

Pacific Historical Review: 82 (1)
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Solving for X
Kennan, Containment, and the Color Line
Clayton R. Koppes
Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 82 No. 1, February 2013; (pp. 95-118) DOI: 10.1525/phr.2013.82.1.95
Clayton R. Koppes
The author teaches in the history department at Oberlin College.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
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Solving for X
Kennan, Containment, and the Color Line
Clayton R. Koppes
Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 82 No. 1, February 2013; (pp. 95-118) DOI: 10.1525/phr.2013.82.1.95
Clayton R. Koppes
The author teaches in the history department at Oberlin College.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
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