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George F. Kennan in 1947. The " X Article " is an article, formally titled " The Sources of Soviet Conduct ", written by George F. Kennan under the pseudonym "X", published in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. The article widely introduced the term " containment " and advocated for its strategic use against the Soviet Union.
The " X Article " is an article, formally titled " The Sources of Soviet Conduct ", written by George F. Kennan under the pseudonym "X", published in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. The article widely introduced the term " containment " and advocated for its strategic use against the Soviet Union.
After receiving approval from his superiors, he submitted the article under the pseudonym "X". Expressing similar sentiments to that of the long telegram, the piece was strong in its anti-communism, introducing and outlining a basic theory of containment.
Repurposing a piece he had submitted to Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal in late January 1947, Kennan's role in government precluded him from publishing under his name. After receiving approval from his superiors, he submitted the article under the pseudonym "X".
July 1947The "X Article" is an article, formally titled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct", written by George F. Kennan and published under the pseudonym "X" in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine.
Shortly thereafter, the identity of the author, “X,” was revealed as George Frost Kennan, then the new Director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff. Historians consider this article the most significant public explanation of America's emerging policy of “containment” toward the Soviet Union.
X,” publishes an article entitled “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in the July edition of Foreign Affairs. The article focused on Kennan's call for a policy of containment toward the Soviet Union and established the foundation for much of America's early Cold War foreign policy.
In February 1946, George F. Kennan's “Long Telegram” from Moscow helped articulate the U.S. government's increasingly hard line against the Soviets and became the basis for the U.S. “containment” strategy toward the Soviet Union for the duration of the Cold War.
George F. Kennan, a career Foreign Service Officer, formulated the policy of “containment,” the basic United States strategy for fighting the cold war (1947–1989) with the Soviet Union.
An American diplomat in Moscow who proposed a policy of containment in Soviet expansion during the cold war.
Kennan warned that the Soviet Union believed that there could be no peaceful co-existence between the communist and capitalist world. Kennan and the Long Telegram influenced the Truman Doctrine and served as the foundation for American Cold War policy and containment theory.
In addition, Kennan believed the Soviets would do all they could to “weaken power and influence of Western Powers on colonial backward, or dependent peoples.” Fortunately, although the Soviet Union was “impervious to logic of reason,” it was “highly sensitive to logic of force.” Therefore, it would back down “when ...
The " X Article " is an article, formally titled " The Sources of Soviet Conduct " , written by George F. Kennan under the pseudonym "X", published in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. The article widely introduced the term " containment ", advocating for its use against the Soviet Union.
After hearing him speak about Soviet foreign relations to the Council on Foreign Relations in January 1947, international banker R. Gordon Wasson suggested to Kennan that he write an article in Foreign Affairs expressing his views.
Kennan composed the long telegram to respond to inquiries about the implications of a February 1946 speech by Joseph Stalin.
The Daily Worker, the newspaper of the Communist Party of the United States, broke the story on Kennan's identity, with a headline on 9 July reading: "'X' Bared as State Dep't Aid [ sic ]: Calls for Overthrow of Soviet Government". Kennan's role in the State Department lent the article the authority of an official policy declaration.
International banker R. Gordon Wasson encouraged Kennan to write an article for Foreign Affairs after hearing him speak to the Council on Foreign Relations at the Harold Pratt House (pictured). On 7 January 1947, Kennan spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations, based at the Harold Pratt House in New York City.
Joseph Stalin speaking at the Bolshoi Theatre, 9 February 1946. Kennan's long telegram began as an analysis of the speech. Joseph Stalin, General Secretary and de facto leader of the Soviet Union, spoke at the Bolshoi Theatre on 9 February 1946, the night before the symbolic 1946 Supreme Soviet election.
G. F. Kennan had been stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as minister-counselor since 1944. Although he was highly critical of the Soviet system, the mood within the U.S. State Department was friendship towards the Soviets, since they were an important ally in the war against Nazi Germany.
In writing the Long Telegram, his reply to the U.S. Treasury Department, Kennan was profoundly aware of the matters at stake; its preface says:
In July 1946, President Truman enlisted the services of one of his senior advisers, Clark Clifford, to prepare a report on Soviet relations that would provide detail on Soviet disregard for post-war agreements.
The Sources of Soviet Conduct began as a private report prepared for Secretary of Defense James Forrestal in January 1947. It was never intended as a public document, but on the urging of Hamilton Fish Armstrong, editor of Foreign Affairs, Kennan obtained permission from Forrestal to publish the article under the pseudonym “X”.