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Mahan and Kennan

Page history last edited by Mr. Hengsterman 8 years ago

What do Alfred T. Mahan and George F. Kennan have in common?'
Their writings influenced the course of US foreign policy!!!!

Mahan (1890)

The development of a new steel navy also focused attention overseas. Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan’s book of 1890, The Influence of Sea Power upon History , 1660–1783 , argued that control of the sea was the key to world dominance. (One of the most influential public policy books ever published)

Mahan analyzed the role a Navy played in history. He determined the US needed to look beyond its borders and have a strong Navy to protect its economic interests. Nice summary of Mahan's Influence (7 minutes)

Read by the English, Germans, and Japanese, as well as by his fellow Americans, Mahan helped stimulate the naval race among the great powers that gained momentum around the turn of the century. This books impacts intellectuals and elites concerned about expansion and economic development

Kennan (1947)

Kennan was an American advisor, diplomat, political scientist, and historian, and architect of U.S. containment policy and a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War.

His "Long Telegram" (under the pseudonym X)from Moscow in 1946, and the subsequent 1947 article "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" argued that firm, vigilant containment patiently over the long term if needed. "Soviet pressure against the free institutions of the Western world is something that can be contained by the adroit and vigilant application of counter-force at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points."

Soviet regime was inherently expansionist and that its influence had to be "contained" in areas of vital strategic importance to the United States.

These texts quickly emerged as foundational texts of the Cold War, expressing the Truman administration's new anti-Soviet Union policy. Kennan also played a leading role in the development of definitive Cold War programs and institutions, most notably the Marshall Plan

What was NSC -68?

Listen to a short podcast about the life of George Kennan (2:43)
Search in Google George Kennan and the Policy of Containment + NPR