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.
Reagan was in truth always a dove, refusing all large-scale interventions and then eagerly seizing on the opportunity to embrace Gorbachev, all against the serried force of his own neo-con supporters.
This is the moment when panegyrics to ‘American empire’ were much in vogue.
