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special feature The Legend OF George f. Kennan By PAUL B. THOMPSON undergo at least 2 revi- with great dedication, and steadfastly setting sions. The date was a noble course for future strategists. January 24, 1947, and Special Collections t1wah 7r7e i-w temeosrosr acknoyst mhwth ppaaoset rs opieonrddoe d loaiuftfir cti hneg TsKteuhndene NnaSntien ’swxc staet r rM1ra9itor4e.rg6 sXi, c hN atarvateii oli,nn odaflef eeWrdia nprg uC vrosaulrleieadgt eio ns on U ND National War College. the policies of ways to win the peace. Their A later version of essays have addressed such issues of the day that treatise was published as nationbuilding, peacekeeping, humanitar- a lone warrior, recently in the July 1947 edition of Foreign Affairs, ian missions, multiple uses of the military, returned from his post attributed to an anonymous Mr. X. That and ways to design interagency decisionmak- in war-torn Moscow, sat article, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” ing entities of the first order. If students have reflectively at his solid oak propelled its author, the warrior and states- needed inspiration, a bronze plaque on the desk in the northwest corner of Roosevelt man George F. Kennan, to the center of the hallowed wall summarizes in short shrift the Hall, set quill to parchment, and, with debate among policymakers concerning the deeds of George F. Kennan. New students great deliberation, wrote concerning Nation’s strategic course during the early note it in passing and wonder if there really is the “The Soviet Way of Thought and Its Cold War. By then, Kennan had departed the anything new in their universe about which Effect on Foreign Policy.” Drawing on National War College to rejoin the policy- they can write as they consider the challenge years of operational experience tempered making arena as the head of the new Office of becoming the next Mr. X. by service as Deputy Commandant of the of Policy Planning at the Department of State, Sixty years of strategic thinking in peace National War College, he explained the an assignment to be sought by future gradu- and war is a long time in the life of a national expansionist threat of the Soviet Union ates of the college. For the next six decades, security institution such as the National and suggested military-political measures Kennan would remain intellectually engaged War College. Kennan was around for 59 of to contain it. Over the next hour, he in the art and science of grand strategy, filling those years and remained influential until crafted a 5,000-word draft, which would senior positions in government and academia his death in 2005 at age 101. Because of his contributions to the strategic thinking of his Commander Paul B. Thompson, USN, is a Professor of National Security Studies at the National War College. time—to the concept of containment and the ndupress.ndu.edu issue 41, 2d quarter 2006 / JFQ 45 Report Documentation Page Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. 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He was there experiences and a number of profound if nature of war and the role of the military at the commencement of academics, helped unfocused thoughts and transitioned into the instrument of statecraft. design a relevant curriculum, and unilaterally consummate strategist: “I realize now that it There remained a significant role for set the standard for intellectual contribution. was at that time—in the background reading, the military, Kennan concluded, but its tra- Writing in his 1967 memoirs, he described in the attendance at lectures by distinguished ditional use would no longer work. Interned for months by the Germans, then serving there was an implicit promise that the college would as the Charge d’Affaires in Moscow during engage in conceptual thinking about war World War II, he knew first-hand the power of that violent instrument of statecraft. It was the original mission in 1946, when he and outsiders, in the agonizing over my own lec- his hope, even in 1946, that the War College his colleagues prepared the curriculum for tures—that some of the ideas were conceived would senior-level students of national policy: “We that have been basic to my views on Ameri- could, through our activities, contribute in can policy ever since.”6 become a major center for not just teaching a way that no previous institution could do Newfound clarity enabled Kennan alone but for wide-ranging, conceptual think- to the thinking about problems of national to articulate his thoughts on the topical ing about war itself as a feature of the inter- policy that was going on all over Washington issues of the day, which he did with great national life of our time, about the role of the in that winter of transition and uncertainty.”1 zeal. “The seven months of residence and Armed Forces as institutions of our national The work of those founders could work at the War College, from September life, and about the relationship of these forces, have missed the mark in the open market of 1946 to May 1947, were the occasion for a whether actively employed or only in being, in national security ideas following World War veritable outpouring of literary and forensic the national interest and to the remainder of II, but it was a seminal moment in the history effort on my part. I look back today with a our national life.8 of the National War College, and Kennan slightly horrified wonder on the energies envisioned a substantive role for the school in this frenzy reflected.”7 He found that by After 46 years, the need was greater the national debate over strategy: immersing himself in the academic mix of than ever to consider that “war itself, the college, he could simultaneously con- conducted under the concepts that have A strategic-political doctrine would have to be tribute to it and benefit from it. The strate- prevailed in the past, can no longer serve as devised for this country which gave promise not gic atmosphere he created transformed him a rational and useful alternative for anyone simply of expanding the material and military even as he was laying the foundation for at all.”9 power of a single nation but of making the others to do the same. The Kennan Chair recognized the strength of that nation a force for peace and stabil- Since that exciting first year of intel- accomplishments of a statesman and scholar. ity in international affairs and helping, in particu- lectual synthesis, hundreds of distinguished But, more importantly, it represented lar, to avoid the catastrophe of atomic war.2 students have partaken of the experience in Kennan’s commitment to going beyond mere strategic thinking. Modern warriors arrive teaching and learning by faculty and students Kennan immediately sought to bring as operators and leave as strategists 10 alike. There was an implicit promise, which the appropriate measure of gravity to build- months later. They deal with the pressures of he clearly articulated on the stage in 1993, ing a national security institute and was retaining operational and tactical expertise that the college would engage in conceptual pleased with the progress, noting that “the for their next assignment while seeking the thinking about war. He explained that program of that first experimental year intellectual foundation for the longer voyage moved forward...smartly, smoothly, and to senior flag and ambassadorial rank. Their developments in...the nature of our inter- with great élan.”3 Based on the prodigious rise to the strategic level of thinking causes national environment and in the qualities output of speeches and articles and the them to contemplate the state-building and potential uses of modern weaponry, have resulting curriculum, Kennan clearly led the capacity of the United States, the future of fundamentally altered the basis for much of the charge into strategic territory. He concluded the nation-state, and the nature of gover- traditional thinking about the ways we can or his association of that time by declaring, “All nance overall. cannot employ our Armed Forces and about in all, I have never known a more enjoyable the relationship of these forces to the problems professional experience.”4 Following in His Footsteps of the remainder of our national life...there is A significant development was that Kennan returned to the War College 46 now a lot of hard thinking to be done on these Kennan himself experienced an intellectual years after he wrote the X article. Traveling subjects. This thinking will of course have to go evolution, brought on by the curriculum by train from Princeton, arm in a sling, he on in a great many places other than this one, he was creating. He thus bore witness to a appeared for the last time, taking the stage in but, for many of the aspects of it, I can think of remarkable aspect of the War College experi- Arnold Auditorium to celebrate the creation no place more suitable than this college.10 ence whereby the learning process applies to of an academic chair in his name and to state all who engage it, faculty as well as students. again what he considered one of the essential But how does one maintain and cul- Indeed, he noted that the highly motivated missions of the institution. His thoughts on tivate an institution of strategic thinking? students taught the faculty as well as the that day, September 8, 1993, were charac- It takes an engaging faculty and a receptive reverse. 5 By his own account, Kennan arrived teristically direct, as he challenged others to student body, each with both an academic 46 JFQ / issue 41, 2d quarter 2006 ndupress.ndu.edu Thompson Roosevelt Hall, site of the National War College NDU Special Collections Special Collections U D N and operational mix. And it requires space cific proposals to contain terrorism, attack it, follow the further course of this innovation for thinking beyond the strategic to the and defeat it. And guardians of the current with higher hopes...than the man by whose visionary level. It further requires students curriculum need to keep it on a trajectory to name, deservedly or otherwise, the new Chair to think beyond how to use current instru- enable that level of strategic thinking. is to be known.”11 JFQ ments of statecraft in their next assignments and to write the next Mr. X strategic essay Part of Kennan’s distant yet abiding NOTES on using military capabilities, along with impact is that he did not overstay his tenure. diplomatic, economic, informational, and He arrived a warrior, did intellectual battle, 1 George F. Kennan, Memoirs 1925–1950 legal means, to achieve homeland security and left a strategist. He had an answer for (Boston: Little Brown, 1967), 308. 2 Ibid., 307. and otherwise make a better world. Kennan his time and found a way to deliver it. That 3 Ibid. would contain the temptation to revert to tactic should resonate well for any period, 4 Ibid. tactical or operational discussions and urge and his life achievements and legend should 5 Ibid. that practitioners do what he did: come from evoke varied responses. The contrast between 6 Ibid. an operational experience directly relevant Kennan’s status as a War College founder and 7 Ibid. to the cause of the day and conceptualize his potential relegation to obscurity is mani- 8 George F. Kennan, remarks at the National those operational insights. For instance, fest in the fact that his chair, still symbolically War College, September 8, 1993. envisioning initiatives against terrorism in located in that corner office but now next to a 9 Ibid. the framework of their personal experiences, synthetic desk with a word processor, stands 10 Ibid. added to experiences and insights from peers empty. Kennan’s final words to the college 11 Ibid. and faculty, students must then make spe- were, “I can assure you that no one will ndupress.ndu.edu issue 41, 2d quarter 2006 / JFQ 47