The Western Response

As relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated after World War II, American leaders sought to understand their new rival. In February 1946 George Kennan, the American chargé d’affaires at the Kremlin, sent a lengthy telegram from Moscow to Washington. Known as the “Long Telegram,” Kennan’s missive described a paranoid Soviet leadership bent on spreading Communism. Kennan urged American leaders to pursue “long-term patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” This approach came to typify U.S. geopolitical strategy throughout much of the Cold War.