Say it Ain't So, George!

Interesting article in The New Republic about George F. Kennan, far and away one of the most admired America diplomats of the last century.

In contrast to his reputation as a cool and sober analyst par excellence, historian Perry Anderson depicts Kennan as an unhinged and extreme thinker, advocating a litany of kooky and aggressive schemes from outlawing the Italian Communist Party (which Kennan admitted might lead to a military rebellion) to invading Iran in 1979.

The real problem, according to the article, is not that Kennan was more of a reactionary Cold Warrior than previously thought. The problem is that esteemed diplomats and statesmen tend to be infected with Big Picture-itis. They think, in the words of Simon Bolivar, in terms of centuries, and see the world in terms of continents. This means that individual countries, much less individual lives, have little meaning.

This outlook is plainly evident (says Anderson) not only in realpolitikers such as Henry Kissinger but more moderate figures like John Lewis Gaddis arguing that the career of George W. Bush was “one of the most surprising transformations of an underrated national leader since Prince Hal became Henry V" or Zbigniew Brzezinski proposing a scheme whereby “European youth could repopulate and dynamize Siberia."

I have never witnessed such grandiosity in the halls of the State Department or among my colleagues. But there is still time!