George F. Kennan: “The Sources of Soviet Conduct”

Kennan’s reputation as the chief intellectual architect of the cold war policy of containment rests primarily on two documents: The “Long Telegram” and “The Sources of Soviet Conduct.” In the first, sent from Moscow in 1946, Kennan lays out what he saw as the chief features of the Soviet state and its approach to world affairs and suggests that trying to contain the USSR would be more effective in the long run than would direct confrontation. He elaborated on these ideas in 1947 in “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” which continues and broadens his analysis of the conflict between the United States and the USSR and makes recommendations regarding how the United States should approach its foreign policy in the context of that conflict.