Kennan’s message to the State Department basically said that the Soviets viewed themselves as being at war with capitalism. Kennan pointed out that Soviet aggression was coming from a historic Russian fear and hatred of foreigners. Also, the structure of Soviet government didn’t allow people to perceive reality accurately. Kennan’s interpretation of the Soviet position is that it was bent on the expansion of totalitarian regimes and for strategic reasons, its influence needed to be contained in areas that were important to the United States. Kennan also believed that it was possible for the United States to appear to the world as a power for good, measuring up to “its own best traditions and prove itself . . . a great nation,” ”(Kennan, 1947, Part IV, paragraph 6), while simultaneously making Russian Communism look “sterile and quixotic” (Kennan, 1947, Part IV, paragraph 3).
Truman went to Congress to raise funds for helping Greece and Turkey resist Communist influences. He felt that these countries were strategically important to the United States. He spoke about totalitarian regimes and free peoples and said that every nation must choose between a way of life based on the will of the people and representative government or on a way of life based on the will of a minority forced on the majority of people—a system that uses terror and oppression and is based on the suppression of personal freedoms.
Kennan suggested that it would be possible for the United States to appear favorable in the eyes of the world while the Soviets, with their reliance on despotism, would look very bad. Kennan’s speech echoes the speech in which Truman invoked the interests of most of the world when he said “we cannot allow changes in the status quo in violation of the Charter of the United Nations by such methods as coercion, or by such subterfuges as political infiltration. In helping free and independent nations to maintain their freedom, the United States will be giving effect to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” (Truman, 1947, paragraph 37).
References:
Kennan, G. F. (1947). The sources of Soviet conduct. Foreign Affairs, 1947.
Truman, H. S. (1947). President Harry S. Truman's address before a joint session of Congress, March 12, 1947.
