#89 - The "Long Telegram"

What this episode covers

* Stalin’s speech in February 1946 wasn’t a declaration of war. * It wasn’t anything that couldn’t have been said in the past. * He issued no direct threats toward the United States, and emphasized above all else the security of the Soviet state and the communist experiment. * Rather, Stalin showed, if his previous words and actions had been insufficient, that he regarded the postwar world as a continuing realm of competition in which the Soviet system would fight for its survival in the face of capitalist encroachment. * Close ties with the West were not in the cards. * The situation, as far as he was concerned, was the same as it had been before the Great Patriotic War: rivalry was inevitable, broad-ranging cooperation all but impossible. * And that’s when George F. Kennan, counselor at the American embassy in Moscow, when asked to explain Stalin's position, wrote his famous 5,500-word answer (not 8000 words, as it’s often referred to) in the form of a telegram he sent to the State Department. * It’s known as the “Long Telegram” * We’ve mentioned Kennan a few times in the past, but I think we should stop for a minute and do a small bio. * After all, the man did more to shape United States policy during the cold war than any other person. * George FROST Kennan was born in 1904 * His mother died two months later from a ruptured appendix. * But for a long time Kennan thought she died giving birth to him. * Which has to be some kind of burden as a kid. * Growing up he wasn’t close to his father or stepmother. * But at the age of 8 he went to Germany to stay with his stepmother in order to learn German. * It was the first of numerous languages he would eventually master: Russian, French, Polish, Czech, Portuguese and Norwegian. * So this would have been around 1912. * Just before WWI. * He eventually got a bachelor's degree in History from Princeton in 1925 and went to work for the United Stated Foreign Service which had only been created the previous year. * his first job was as a vice consul in Geneva, Switzerland * Then he was transferred to a post in Hamburg, Germany where he was selected for a linguist training program that lasted three years. * In 1929 Kennan began his program on history, politics, culture, and the Russian language at the University of Berlin's Oriental Institute. * He was following in the footsteps of his grandfather's younger cousin, also called George Kennan,who was a major 19th century expert on Imperial Russia. * And by 1931 he was in Latvia, where he worked on Soviet economic affairs. * When the U.S. began formal diplomacy with the Soviet government during 1933, Kennan went to Moscow with the U.S.Ambassador, William C. Bullitt. * Who of course Steve McQueen portrayed in the 1968 film BULLITT. * Joking. * Bullitt was actually fired from that job in 1936 when a journalist blew the whistle on him for being involved in the illegal money exchanges in Russia. * He was briefly engaged to Roosevelt's personal secretary and lifelong companion, Missy LeHand (Job), but she broke off the engagement after a trip to Moscow during which she reportedly discovered him to be having an affair with Olga Lepeshinskaya, who was Stalin’s favourite ballet dancer, and maybe mistress. * Bullitt’s second wife, BTW, was Louise Bryant, author of Six Red Months in Russia, played by Diane Keaton in the 1981 film REDS. * He divorced her when he found out she was having a lesbian affair with English sculptor Gwen Le Gallienne. * ANYWAY. * Back to Kennan. * Kennan served as deputy head of the mission in Moscow until April 1946. * Near the end of that term, the Treasury Department requested that the State Department explain recent Soviet behavior, such as its disinclination to endorse the International Monetary Fund and the Wo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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