Two Georges
George Kennan, the man that time forgot, is dead at 101. The age offered a nice paradox, in that Kennan was the first to outline the contradictions that would ultimately bring down the Soviet Empire, whereas George Orwell used the number to identify the room, in his novel 1984, where the ultimate totalitarian nightmare was played out.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
George Kennan is perhaps the most overrated figure in American diplomatic history. The man's most notable accomplishment was stating the obvious. The US will not allow the Soviet Union to overrun Western Europe. Well, that was a tough one to come up with.
Sorry, probably more appropriate to comment in the earlier post.
I don't see what's so great about Jackson Pollack paintings, either. Hell, I could have dribbled paint around, too. It's just so obvious.
Once he did it, it was obvious.
Wow! A Turtledove/Dreyfuss reference!?
Kevin