ABSTRACT
George Kennan, then Acting Ambassador of the United States to the Soviet Union, sent a long telegram to the State Department on 22 February 1946 and published his famous “X” article in July 1947, in which he defined the Soviet threat as essentially ideological and political.1 Advocating a long-term, ideological, and political containment against Soviet expansionism, the effect of his writing in Washington was “nothing less than sensational.” Kennan later explained that it was “one of those moments when official Washington, whose states of receptivity or the opposite are determined by subjective emotional currents…was ready to receive a given message.” Kennan’s long telegram provided Washington with a persuasive analysis and an authoritative referent to explain Soviet conduct. Kennan recalled, “Six months earlier this message would probably have been received in the Department of State with raised eyebrows and lips pursed in disapproval. Six months later, it would probably have sounded redundant.”2
