George F. Kennan obit

Rather than link to the obituaries in various major newspapers, I'm going to direct you to David Adesnik's post at Oxblog. He takes an especially critical look at the NY Times' writeup, noting:

The NYT . . . never provides its readers with even the faintest suggestion that Kennan was fundamentally opposed to democracy promotion as a matter of principle. In contrast, the WaPo obituary of Kennan quotes him as saying that

"I would like to see our government gradually withdraw from its public advocacy of democracy and human rights. I submit that governments should deal with other governments as such, and should avoid unnecessary involvement, particularly personal involvement, with their leaders."

Mind you, Kennan's statement has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he was a lifelong Democrat and that, these days, democracy promotion is a Republican agenda item. I can make this assertion with such confidence because Kennan's statement above is from 1999.

Yet while the Post deserves credit for recognizing the anti-democratic elements of Kennan's thinking (including his reactionary sexism and racism -- also ignored by the NYT), its provision of a quote from 1999 fails to inform readers that Kennan's opposition to promoting democracy was a six decade-long affair.

When asked to propose a US strategy for Latin America in the late 1940s, Kennan insisted that the United States must abandon its aversion to establishing firm alliances with right-wing dictators both because they were anti-communists and because the people of Latin America weren't ready for democracy.

I'm not quite sure what Glenn Reynolds was thinking when he called Kennan "the Wolfowitz of the Cold War, but with better press" inasmuch as Adesnik quite pointedly contrasts Kennan's "realism" with democracy promotion as advocated by contemporary neoconservatives. Two "architects of foreign policy", to be sure, but of such different edifices . . .

Notable quote from the Post, not cited by Adesnik:

W. Averell Harriman, the U.S. ambassador in Moscow when Mr. Kennan was minister-counselor of the U.S. Embassy, remarked that Mr. Kennan was "a man who understood Russia but not the United States."

Posted by David on March 18, 2005 8:38 AM