Activity

the presidency commands and acts in virtually untrammelled ways

The universalism of the Truman Doctrine in March 1947 was thus not a mistake or a momentary lapse of judgement. It was essential for the whole operation.

This had always been Kennan’s tendential position. It now became the official US position.

The Long Telegram (just as the later X-Article) is ‘rejectionist’ through and through. It was precisely this aspect that made it so useful. The Soviet regime became an unchangeable essence of total, destructive, expansionist power, a state with which no relations of traditional diplomacy were possible.