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OUR PURPOSES

The National Committee on American Foreign Policy, which was founded by the late Professor Hans J. Morgenthau, among others, in 1974, is a voluntary, nonprofit organization that seeks to stimulate informed interest in and concern for the serious problems confronting the United States in its foreign relations. The membership consists of former U.S. ambassadors as well as leaders in academia, the professions, finance, commerce, industry, and communications.

The National Committee's principal concerns after the termination of the cold war continue to be focused on American interests in a shifting political and economic environment. They include

1. preserving and strengthening open-society countries,

2. improving America's relations with the developing world,

3. advancing human rights,

4. curbing nuclear proliferation and extending arms-control agreements, and

5. promoting an open and global world economy.

The National Committee on American Foreign Policy is nonpartisan and nonsectarian; it maintains no ties with any special interest group or foreign government.

A major and distinguishing activity of the National Committee is the presentation of firm and reasoned positions on specific issues. When, after study and discussion, it reaches an internal consensus on a particular foreign policy problem, it seeks to make that view known to the administration, Congress, the media, and the general public. It is this willingness to take a public stand-independent of partisan, ethnic, or regional special interests-that makes the National Committee on American Foreign Policy different from other nonprofit organizations in the field of foreign affairs.

Welcome
by
William J. Flynn

I extend a very special welcome to our guest of honor, Ambassador George F. Kennan, and his wife and express our gratitude to the presenters of the first George F. Kennan Award — former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, jr. We are honored by your presence.

Congratulations also to our luncheon cochairs, Joanne Toor Cummings and Ambassador Francis L. Kellogg, and to our luncheon committee—the Honorable and Mrs. Angier Biddle Duke, Mr. and Mrs. Randolph Hearst, Mrs. Milton Petrie, Mr. and Mrs. David Rockefeller, the Honorable and Mrs. John C. Whitehead, and Mr. and Mrs. James D. Wolfensohn. I'd also like to welcome two guests from Ireland—David Kennedy, formerly of Aer Lingus, and Sir George Quigley, chairman of the Bank of Ulster in Northern Ireland.

My job here today is to present our president. But before I do, I want to inform every member of the National Committee and our distinguished guests that the committee has been successful in bringing together the combatants in the North of Ireland. I will not take you through the recent past but will simply emphasize that last week I had the pleasure of attending the cease-fire announcement by the Combined Unionist Military Command in the North of Ireland. They asked for and I extended on behalf of the National Committee and with the approval of its Executive Committee an invitation to them to join us in the United States starting in New York and then in Boston and Washington and then back to New York before returning home. The meetings in New York City included discussions with six representatives of Unionist paramilitary organizations. They were undertaken based on the belief that giving people a chance to express their points of view is likely to reduce the chance of their turning to violence. The hope is

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that in promoting understanding we promote the process of reconciliation.

I now have the honor to introduce to you Dr. George Schwab, a professor of history at City College and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, our president, who was inspired to create the George F. Kennan Award and to recommend its first recipient, Ambassador George F. Kennan.

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Introduction
by
George D. Schwab

I join our chairman, Bill Flynn, in welcoming you on behalf of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, and I want to thank you for joining us in honoring one of the foremost thinkers and practitioners of American foreign policy.

Although we are here to present an award to Ambassador Kennan, the truth is that he is honoring us by being here. Just like Hans J. Morgenthau, the founder of this organization, Ambassador Kennan is one of the great shapers, one of the great leaders, and one of the great teachers of American foreign policy.

Although Professor Morgenthau did not live to see this moment, he would have been as proud as all the other members of the National Committee are that we are honoring an individual for whom Hans Morgenthau had the deepest respect and admiration.

Professor Morgenthau and Ambassador Kennan are kindred spirits. Both view the global arena of politics through the prism of human nature. Both are political realists, and both are hopeful about the future, and so it is only fitting that we complement the Hans J. Morgenthau Award with the George F. Kennan Award and award the first George F. Kennan Award to its namesake — an excellent way to begin a venerable tradition.

I now invite Dr. Kissinger and Professor Schlesinger to present the award to Ambassador Kennan.

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A Tribute to
George F. Kennan
by
Henry A. Kissinger

Mr. Chairman, George, and friends. It is an enormous privilege to be asked to participate in the presentation of the first award named after a man who has done more for American thinking on foreign policy in the postwar period than anybody else and one to whom I personally owe an extraordinary debt in terms of my own intellectual development.

No other major country has had the same emotional and intellectual difficulties in coming to terms with its foreign policy as the United States. It is the only major country in the world whose origin can be dated precisely, that was peopled entirely by immigrants who turned their backs on their former environs, that never had any powerful neighbors, and that never faced a strategic threat until recently. Consequently, America never had to develop a foreign policy of careful calculation at the imminence of a precipice, unlike the situation of other great powers. Unlike them, America has always been able to wait for threats to turn unambiguous and then to overwhelm them with the sheer strength of its resources. Also, America has always been able to rely on its extraordinary idealism, equating relations among nations with human relations, and to mobilize itself for the alleviation of suffering without reference to what would normally be considered the national interest. Only in the postcold-war world has America had to coexist with other great powers of more or less equal capacity to affect events. It has been able neither to withdraw nor to dominate, and it requires guidance in order to find its way through these complexities.

When I first read George Kennan's seminal writings, I found them most interesting. Having reread his "long telegram," his "X" article, and his pronouncements on

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disengagement after forty years of my own work, I find them prophetic. And one asks oneself, why did we not understand their full meaning at the time? George Kennan was the first if not the only one who predicted why communism would disintegrate. He did so in 1947, when he described what would happen if communist leaders ever had to reach out to the masses—used to discipline and orthodoxy—to find support for their conflicting policies. It was Kennan's destiny to write when it was hard to understand how nations could be both adversaries and partners and impossible to classify everything into neat categories. George was able to do all that because he was, foremost, a student of history. His works on nineteenth-century diplomacy, written with a simplicity and an eloquence that stamp their uniqueness, remain extraordinarily instructive for our own time. And through all of this, George has remained quintessentially American, for he has not simply relied on an analysis of interests but has kept in mind the moral component of foreign policy.

Let me read the way he ended his great article on containment: "The thoughtful observer will find no cause for complaint in the challenge to American society. He will either experience a certain gratitude to a providence by which, by providing the American people with its challenge, it has made their entire security as a nation dependent on their pulling themselves together and accepting the responsibilities of moral and political leadership that history plainly intended them to bear."

The ultimate task of a leader is to take his people from where they are to where they have never been. That is indeed a lonely enterprise requiring great courage. It is one reason why prophets are never honored in their own countries. In our time, however, we are fortunate that the process of history has speeded up sufficiently to permit us to pay tribute to a prophet who is honored in his own country.

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I am pleased to read to you the criteria for the George F. Kennan Award for Distinguished Public Service: "The National Committee on American Foreign Policy is establishing the George F. Kennan Award as a tribute to Ambassador Kennan for his eminent public service as a statesman and diplomat. Ambassador Kennan decisively contributed to the defining of the national interests of the United States and provided the theoretical foundations for a policy that became synonymous with his name. The Americans to be honored with the award will be those who served their country exemplarily or made seminal contributions to defining and illuminating the national interest of the United States."

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to pay tribute to a great man.

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A Tribute to
George F. Kennan
by
Arthur M. Schlesinger, jr.

I feel greatly privileged to join today in honoring this very noble American who has made such distinctive and influential contributions to our thinking about foreign affairs; and I will emphasize a point to which Henry Kissinger has just alluded—that is, the way in which George Kennan has embodied the moral component in American foreign policy.

It is ironic that forty years ago George Kennan acquired a spurious reputation as amoral, even Machiavellian, in his approach to foreign affairs. His argument that foreign policy should be based on national interest shocked many people of good will—people who had forgotten George Washington's comment that no nation can be trusted further than it is bound by its interest.

His scorching critique of the influence of legalism and moralism on the conduct of foreign affairs further shocked those who did not recognize that moralism is a very different thing from morality. Moralism means preaching to others; morality means setting standards for oneself. George Kennan abominated moralism and affirmed morality. His abiding influence, I believe, will be as a brave and thoughtful spokesman for the national conscience.

In an age of shuffling and evasion and self-righteousness and double talk, George Kennan is one of the few Americans who was prepared to consider and confront the inescapable riddle of our national identity and the great, fateful questions that hang over the future of the republic. He sees America in a large way—with large hopes and large forebodings. His views on foreign policy are much less a challenge to the world outside than a challenge to America itself—and to each of us individually as Americans.

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Throughout his life George Kennan has been haunted by
the question whether the possession of power and wealth will
lead this republic into maturity and responsibility or whether
it will lead us into arrogance, vainglory, and delusion. Wisdom
and morality, in his view, call for self-restraint, self-discipline,
and, above all, self-knowledge. It is the obligation of self-
knowledge, derived from history and from self-examination,
that weighs most heavily upon us as we prepare to meet the
challenges of the twenty-first century.

As we struggle through the shadowed years ahead, let us
draw inspiration from the life, thought, and example of George
Kennan.

Henry read the criteria for the award, and I will read the
inscription: "The Honorable George F. Kennan, author of the
theory of containment and critic of the policy of containment,
is the first recipient of the George F. Kennan Award for Distinguished Public Service, New York City, October 17, 1994,
National Committee on American Foreign Policy."

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# The Shape of American Foreign Policy in the Postcold-War Era: A Perspective Honed in the Twentieth Century

by
George F. Kennan

Mr. Flynn, Doctor Schwab, ladies and gentlemen: I think you will all know without my laboring the point how deeply I appreciate this honor. I feel very inadequate to know how to acknowledge it. It would be difficult for anyone, I think, to respond to the honor itself and to the lovely things that have just been said. If the task of this committee is, as I have always assumed it to be, to promote sound and constructive thinking about the problems of American foreign policy, then the conferring of this award enables me to think that my own efforts of these past years have been at least supplementary to those of the committee, and that in itself gives me deep satisfaction and encouragement.

When Dr. Schwab first spoke to me last spring about the possibility of such an occasion, I told him that honored as I would be, of course, by the award, I could not, for reasons of age and health, contemplate giving an address. This remains, for better or for worse, the situation, but I have been told recently that there were expectations in one quarter or another that I would say something about my view of what should constitute the general thrust of American foreign policy in this postcold-war era, and this I will try to do, although necessarily very briefly.

I must say, before I begin my remarks, that this is a very intimidating group of people I have before me. I see a great many people who know a lot more than I do about the things I'll be talking about, and I feel a certain hesitation in saying anything at all about our policy of the present day. I am, after all, a man of this past century, and what we are getting into now

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is the century that is about to dawn on us. At times I thought I
knew something about the century that will soon pass; but I'm
sure that I do not know nor can I foresee a great deal about the
century that is coming. Nevertheless, I will say a few words.

If the suggestion is that I outline a central thrust of
American foreign policy to replace that which preoccupied us
during the period of the cold war, then I can say only that this
is a very difficult thing for me to respond to. I don't think there
is any central thrust of policy possible at this time. It is a varied,
very confused, very unbalanced, and uncertain world that we
face. What we need is not any single policy. That would be quite
impossible at this point. What we need is a variety of policies.
But perhaps there is one unifying factor that could bring these
things together, and that is the question of motivation, of
purpose, and what we conceive ourselves to be doing. This
question, I think, can take two forms: One is a very natural
traditional and unavoidable concern for our military and po-
litical security and for the security of our closest allies. The
other is the hope, endemic, I think, to all generations of Ameri-
cans, that we, as a great democratic people, will be able to play
a useful and effective role in promoting peace, stability, and
humane government in other parts of the world.

In the years since communism broke down, our military
security, providentially, has not been seriously threatened.
That is true for most though not all of our allies. So perhaps it
was only natural that we should have concentrated a large part
of our attention on and invested a large part of our efforts in
being helpful to others in troubled situations involving, for the
most part, countries other than those in the advanced areas of
Europe and the Far East. I have in mind, of course, such places
as Korea, Iraq, the Balkans, the Near East, Somalia, and now
Haiti.

I have few criticisms to make of the way in which we
have handled these situations. I have only admiration and

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pride for the way in which our armed forces have conducted
themselves in performing the tasks to which they have been
assigned, tasks that, in many instances, were quite outside the
limits of their traditional training. I think that they have been
models of what military people can do in difficult circum-
stances.

With the exception of Somalia and the still unfinished
intervention in Haiti, I do not see that our government had any
choice but to respond to those situations in the way that it did.
And, finally, after all the political wrangling and jousting and
mutual denunciations about foreign policy that have gone on
here at home, I consider that both administrations, that of Mr.
Bush and that of Mr. Clinton, have handled these various
situations diplomatically in a reasonably sound and creditable
manner. I hope that when these involvements have been liqui-
dated in a way that is consistent with the preservation of the
honor and dignity of this country (and, in this instance, that is
going to be, I am afraid, a very long time), we will not be in too
much of a hurry to replace those involvements with others.

All that being said, I still have some anxieties to voice
about various ventures. But, first, I must say (and some of you
may find this hard to believe) that I have anxieties about the
highly dangerous and urgent problems, social, political, and
economic, that we have right here in our own country. They are
problems that the media have found it hard to recognize and
that the politicians have found it hard to admit, but I hope that
these problems will soon become the subject of national debate,
that they will receive the attention and the discussion that they
deserve, and for this it is desirable that we be not too distracted
with involvements and problems beyond our borders.

Second, we have our relations with the other great
powers, and we must not permit our preoccupations with the
less developed world to distract us from doing justice to the
importance of those relations. We have before us in this respect

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a situation, a providential situation, I think, namely, that for the first time in modern history—the first time that I can think of —there is a group of major powers to which we belong whose relations are not marked by any great and serious conflicts, by no conflicts, at least, that cannot be alleviated by patience, understanding, negotiation, and compromise. We have every reason to appreciate this situation, to cherish it, and to do all in our power to perpetuate it, remembering that good relations with great powers, like those with small ones, require constant attention and nurturing not only in crises but at all times. Here too we must be careful not to take our relations with great powers for granted, not to allow ourselves to be too heavily distracted by involvements in other parts of the world.

There is one other thing that I would like to mention about the various involvements that we have been concentrating on in the last two or three years. That is a very difficult one for me to talk about, for it's one on which one can be easily misunderstood: We have had a tendency to focus most of our efforts (or, it seems to me, a great many of them) on attempting to ensure democracy and human rights in other parts of the world. Though this ideal does credit to our own life and to our own aspirations and is one with which no one can argue, I must say that I don't think that all of the world is going to become democratic in our time no matter what we do. And I'm always a little afraid, a little disturbed, when I hear Americans talking to others about democracy and human rights because I always hear an undertone of self-congratulation, which I don't like. I don't like speaking down to people. In many instances the problems of other countries have been as severe as ours. And while we can tell them or can show them by example the way that we feel about these things, I think we should be very careful about telling them how to behave. One of the things that bothers me is that we have had a tendency to cast so many of these involvements in terms of our own struggle for democracy

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and human rights and done this in instances in which what we really should have been talking about (but which, for some curious reason, Americans never like to talk about) is simply our own national interest.

Not least among the problems that we have to handle in our relations with the major powers and some of the others as well is the continuing widespread development, cultivation, and proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. That is not merely a regional problem; it is a global one that involves a little less than the whole future of humanity and its stake in the future of civilization. I have never forgotten Robert Oppenheimer's reply when Ed Murrow asked him in a television interview whether humanity could survive a major nuclear war. "I don't know, I don't know," Oppenheimer replied. "But it would take the greatest act of faith to believe that what might survive it would be human." That remark, if anything, remains as true today as it was when Oppenheimer made it, for the control of this form of weaponry now rests in a larger number of hands. I believe that we, as the first country to have developed those weapons and the only one to use them against another population, and a largely helpless one at that, have a great and special responsibility and even a duty to take the lead in bringing those weapons under eventual control either through international organs or in having them eliminated from national arsenals.

Meeting this responsibility will require us to persuade others and to impose no small measure of restraint and scrutiny on our own words and actions. I welcome and commend the measures that we, the Russians, and others have undertaken recently. They are encouraging developments but are far from sufficient to meet the need. I greatly hope that we will now take a new look at this entire problem and will give to it the attention that it warrants. This is the least we can do for our children and our grandchildren.

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There you have it: a voice from the century that is now
passing to the inhabitants of the one about to begin. As always,
when an older person tries to talk to younger people (and,
believe me, practically everyone in this hall is younger than I),
much of what he or she says is boring, for older people have a
tendency to repeat themselves and talk about things seemingly
removed from the interests and thoughts of their listeners. But
it has been known to happen, here and there, that a small
portion of what an oldster has had to say had relevance for the
future as well as for the past. In this instance I leave that for you
to judge. I cannot. I thank you for your attention.

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# OUR PURPOSES

3. advancing human rights,

A major and distinguishing activity of the National Committee is the presentation of firm and reasoned positions on specific issues. When, after study and discussion, it reaches an internal consensus on a particular foreign policy problem, it seeks to make that view known to the administration, Congress, the media, and the general public. It is this willingness to take a public stand—independent of partisan, ethnic, or regional special interests—that makes the National Committee on American Foreign Policy different from other nonprofit organizations in the field of foreign affairs.

Welcome
by
William J. Flynn

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Throughout his life George Kennan has been haunted by the question whether the possession of power and wealth will lead this republic into maturity and responsibility or whether it will lead us into arrogance, vainglory, and delusion. Wisdom and morality, in his view, call for self-restraint, self-discipline, and, above all, self-knowledge. It is the obligation of self-knowledge, derived from history and from self-examination, that weighs most heavily upon us as we prepare to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.

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by
George F. Kennan

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If the suggestion is that I outline a central thrust of American foreign policy to replace that which preoccupied us during the period of the cold war, then I can say only that this is a very difficult thing for me to respond to. I don't think there is any central thrust of policy possible at this time. It is a varied, very confused, very unbalanced, and uncertain world that we face. What we need is not any single policy. That would be quite impossible at this point. What we need is a variety of policies. But perhaps there is one unifying factor that could bring these things together, and that is the question of motivation, of purpose, and what we conceive ourselves to be doing. This question, I think, can take two forms: One is a very natural traditional and unavoidable concern for our military and political security and for the security of our closest allies. The other is the hope, endemic, I think, to all generations of Americans, that we, as a great democratic people, will be able to play a useful and effective role in promoting peace, stability, and humane government in other parts of the world.

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Henry Kissinger: Mr. Chairman, George, and friends. It is an enormous privilege to be asked to participate in the presentation of the first award named after a man who has done more for American thinking on foreign policy in the postwar period than anybody else and one to whom I personally owe an extraordinary debt in terms of my own intellectual development.

No other major country has had the same emotional and intellectual difficulties in coming to terms with its foreign policy as the United States. It is the only major country in the world whose origin can be dated precisely, which was peopled entirely by immigrants who turned their backs on their former environs, which has never had any powerful neighbors, and which, until very recently, had never faced a strategic threat. Consequently, America has never had to develop a foreign policy of careful calculation at the imminence of a precipice, though that has characterized the situation of other great powers. Unlike them, America has always been able to wait for threats to turn unambiguous and then to overwhelm them with the sheer strength of its resources. America has also always been able to rely on its extraordinary idealism, equating relations

Corrected copy

among nations with humans relations, and to mobilize itself for the alleviation of suffering
without reference to what would normally be considered the national interest. Only in the
post-Cold War world has America had to coexist with other great powers of more or less
equal capacity to affect events. It has been able neither to withdraw nor to dominate, and
it requires guidance in order to find its way through these complexities.

When I first read George Kennan's seminal writings, I found them most
interesting; having reread his Long Telegram, his "X" article, and his pronouncements on
disengagement after forty years of my own work, I find them prophetic. And one asks
oneself, why did we not understand their full meaning at the time? George Kennan was
the first, if not the only, one who predicted why communism would disintegrate. He did
so in 1947, when he described what would happen if the communist leaders ever had to
reach out into the masses - used to discipline and orthodoxy - to find support for their
conflicting policies. It was Kennan's destiny to write under conditions in which it was
hard to understand how nations could be both adversaries and partners and that it was
impossible to classify everything into neat categories. George was able to do all that

2

because he was, foremost, a student of history. His works on 19th-century diplomacy remain extraordinarily instructive for our own time, written as they were with a simplicity and an eloquence that are a stamp of their uniqueness. And through all of this, George has remained quintessentially American, for he has not simply relied on an analysis of interests but has, throughout, kept in mind the moral component of foreign policy.

> Let me read the way he ended his great article on containment: "The thoughtful observer will find no cause for complaint in the challenge to American society. He will either experience a certain gratitude to a providence by which, by providing the American people with its challenge, it has made their entire security as a nation dependent on their pulling themselves together and accepting the responsibilities of moral and political leadership that history plainly intended them to hear."

3

I am pleased to read to you the criteria for the George F. Kennan Award for
Distinguished Public Service: "The National Committee on American Foreign Policy is
establishing the George F. Kennan Award as a tribute to Ambassador Kennan for his
eminent public service as a statesman and diplomat. Ambassador Kennan decisively
contributed to the defining of the national interests of the United States and provided the
theoretical foundations for a policy that became synonymous with his name. The
Americans to be honored with the award will be those who served their country
exemplarily or have made seminal contributions to defining and illuminating the national
interest of the United States."

******************* -COMM. JOURNAL- ******************* DATE DEC-01-1994 ***** TIME 2:40 ** P.01

CJ

MODE = MEMORY TRANSMISSION

START=DEC-01 21:38

END=DEC-01 21:40

FILE NO.= 081

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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | OK | @ | 8742178 | 004/004 | | |

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Kennan remarks

1

**Henry Kissinger.** Mr. Chairman, George, and friends. It is an enormous privilege to be asked to participate in the presentation of the first award named after a man who has done more for American thinking on foreign policy in the postwar period than anybody else and one to whom I personally owe an extraordinary debt in terms of my own intellectual development.

When I first read George Kennan's seminal writings, I found them most
interesting; having reread his Long Telegram, his "X" article, and his pronouncements on
disengagement after forty years of my own work, I find them prophetic. And one asks
oneself, why did we not understand their full meaning at the time? George Kennan was
the first, if not the only, one who predicted why communism would disintegrate. He did
so in 1947, when he described what would happen if the communist leaders ever had to
reach out into the masses - used to discipline and orthodoxy - to find support for their
conflicting policies. It was Kennan's destiny to write under conditions in which it was
hard to understand how it was that nations could be both adversaries and partners and that
it was impossible to classify everything into neat categories. George was able to do all

2

that because he was, foremost, a student of history. His works on 19th-century diplomacy
remain extraordinarily instructive for our own time, written as they were with a simplicity
and an eloquence that are a stamp of their uniqueness. And through all of this, George has
remained quintessentially American, for he has not simply relied on an analysis of interests
but has, throughout, kept in mind the moral component of foreign policy.

3

**Henry Kissinger:** Mr. Chairman, George, and friends. It is an enormous privilege to be asked to participate in the presentation of the first award named after a man who has done more for American thinking on foreign policy in the postwar period than anybody else and one to whom I personally owe an extraordinary debt in terms of my own intellectual development.

2

NOV-01-1994 17:18

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212 759 0042

delivers his remarks on American foreign policy. May I
please invite you all.

Henry Kissinger: Mr. Chairman, George, and friends. It
is an enormous privilege to be asked to participate in the
presenting the first award named after a man who has done
more for American thinking about foreign policy in the
post-war period than anybody else, ~~and~~ to whom I
personally owe an extraordinary debt in terms of
intellectual development. No other major country has the
emotional and intellectual difficulties in coming to
terms of its gripes with foreign policy as the United States. It is
the only major country in the world whose origin can be
dated precisely, ~~the only major country in the world
that~~ is peopled entirely by immigrants who turned their
back on their previous societies, the only major country
~~which~~ any which has never had powerful neighbors, and the only major
country that until very recently has never faced a

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7

a foreign policy of careful calculations at the imminence
which though that has passed, situation
of a precipice that characterizes the situation of other

great powers. America has always been able to wait until
they become unambiguous and then overwhelm us with the

threat, and also, to turn to us, with its resources. America has always been able to rely on its

extraordinary idealism and to identify relations among
human relations, among people and to mobilize
itself for the alleviation of suffering without

reference to what normally would be considered the
post-Cold War Only in the past world has a national interest. But America has had to live now in a

world of other great powers of more or less equal
capacity to affect events. It has been able neither to
withdraw nor to dominate, and it has needed guidance to

When I first read George Kennan's seminal writings when I found them most they first appeared, and I thought then they were

they treat shatter, and I thought then they were
I meant to record Kean's final words when
find it way through these complexities.

In other great powers of more or less equal
national interest, and America had to live with it
reference to what normally would be considered the
itself for the elevation of uttering
motions with relations among people and to mobilise
exhibitory ideas and to identify relations among
relations. America has always been able to rely on its
the threat because manipulative and then overwhelming
with great power. America has always been able to wait until
of a breaking gear characterises the environment of other
which
a foreseen policy of certain uncolonisation of the inertia
strategic interest.

*Comment*

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[Y]

8

having reread his long telegram, his X article, and his pronouncements on disengagement after forty years of find my own work, and I found them prophetic. And one asks *their* face oneself, why did we not understand *at the time* that George Kennan people meaning? He was the first, if not the only, one who predicted why communism would disintegrate, and he did so in 1947, when he described what would happen if the *out* communist leaders ever had to reach *down* into the masses, *used to* discipline and orthodoxy, to find support for *their* conflicting policies. It was his destiny to write under conditions in which it was hard to understand how *it was that* nations could be both adversaries and partners, *and how that* it was impossible to classify everything into neat categories. Now George was able to do all this, *because he has been* foremost a student of history. Now *we do not believe that we can learn a great deal from history since we rely on conversion and on new*

NOV-01-1994 15:57

212+874+2178

96%

P.02

NOV-01-1994 17:18

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P.05/07

[Y]

9

beginnings but his works on 19th-century diplomacy are remain
extraordinarily instructive for our own day, and they time
been as they were
written with a simplicity and an eloquence that are a
stamps them as unique. And through all of this, George
has remained quintessentially American, for he has
relying on an analysis of interests, for he has throughout he kept
in mind the moral component of foreign policy. And let
me just read the way he ended his great article on
containment: "The thoughtful observer will find no cause
for complaint in the challenge to American society. He
will either experience a certain gratitude to a
providence by which by providing the American people with
its challenge, it has made their entire security as a
nation dependent on their pulling themselves together and
accepting the responsibilities of moral and political
leadership that history plainly intended them to bear."
the ultimate task of a leader is to take his

NOV-01-1994 15:57

212+874+2178

95%

P.04

["the ultimate end of a fashion is to take this\njudging that disorderly intention to be based on\nthe reasonableness of moral and political\njustification based on moral building and\njustification based on moral and political\njust

NOV-01-1994 17:18

KISSINGER ASSOC.

212 759 0042

P.06/07

10
they are ~~they have~~ (stet)
people from where ~~it is~~ to where it has never been that
~~it is~~ a lonely enterprise requiring great courage. ~~but~~
history has speeded ~~and this is~~ why prophets are also
never ~~ed by~~ yes, it is
honors ~~in their own country.~~ But in our time, history
(Sufficiently) to permit us ~~the process of being capable of evaluating~~
has speeded up, and so I am proud to be able to be here ~~who is~~ ed
> to pay tribute to a prophet ~~with honor~~ in his own
country, and whose achievements have been so vastly
unappreciated. I am pleased ~~to you~~ I've been asked to read the criteria
for the George F. Kennan Award for Distinguished Public
Service: "The National Committee on American Foreign
Policy is establishing the George F. Kennan Award as a
tribute to Ambassador Kennan for his eminent public
service as a statesman and diplomat. Ambassador Kennan
decisively contributed to the defining of the national
interests of the United States and provided the
theoretical foundations for a policy that became
synonymous with his name. The Americans to be honored

NOV-01-1994 15:58

212+874+2178

95%

P.05

NOV-01-1994 17:19

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212 759 0042 P.07/07

11

~~Complar~~ ex_ _ily or have made seminal contributions to defining and illuminating the national interest of the United States." ~ Thank you for giving me this opportunity to pay tribute to a great man.

~~Arthur Schlesinger:~~ I am honored ~~too~~ to be invited to participate in this great occasion, ~~and to be given~~ the opportunity to honor a noble American, a man who has made such distinctive and influential contributions to our thinking about foreign policy, ~~will~~ that I ~~would like to~~ emphasize what Henry mentioned in his remarks, ~~and that is the extent to~~ which George Kennan has affirmed the moral component in American foreign policy. It is ironic in a way that this ~~for~~ should be so, ~~a~~ George Kennan acquired a spurious reputation for a few moments (40) years ago as amoral, even ~~stated~~ Machiavellian, because he felt that foreign policy should be based on national interests, ~~and~~ the people who were

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TOTAL P.07

11/01/94 15:54

RELOCATION RESOURCES INT. → 212 759 0042

003

Henry Kissinger: Mr. Chairman, George, and friends. It
is an enormous privilege to be asked to participate in
presenting the first award named after a man who has done
more for American thinking about foreign policy in the
post-war period than anybody else, and to whom I
personally owe an extraordinary debt of my own
intellectual development. No other major country has the
emotional and intellectual difficulties in coming to
grips with foreign policy as the United States. It is
the only major country in the world whose origin can be
dated precisely. The only major country in the world
that is peopled entirely by immigrants who turned their
back on their previous societies, the only major country
that has never had powerful neighbors, and the only major
country that until very recently has never faced a

NOV-01-1994 15:57

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11/01/94

16:11

RELOCATION RESOURCES INT. → 212 759 0041

001

[Y]

7

Consequently, America has never had to develop a foreign policy of careful calculations at the imminence of a precipice, that characterizes the era of other great powers. America has always been able to wait until the threat became unambiguous and then, with resources. America has always been able to rely on its extraordinary idealism and to identify relations among nations with relations among people and to mobilize itself for the alleviation of suffering, without reference to what normally would be considered the national interest. But, in the postwar world, in a world of other great powers of more or less equal capacity to affect events. It has been able neither to withdraw nor to dominate, and it has needed guidance to find its way through these complexities.

I have read George Kennan's seminal writings when they first appeared, and I thought then, that they were

⊗

11/01/94 15:53

D02

8

interesting. I reread his long telegram, his X article, his pronouncements on disengagement after forty years of my own work, and I found them prophetic. And one asks oneself, why did we not understand ~~their~~ at the time that ~~George Kennan~~ people meaning ? He was the first, if not the only one, who predicted why communism would disintegrate, and he did so in 1947, when he described what would happen if the communist leaders ever had to reach ~~down~~ into the masses, used to discipline and orthodoxy, to find support for their conflicting policies. It was his destiny to write under conditions in which it was hard to understand how nations could be both adversaries and partners, and how it was impossible to classify everything into neat categories. ~~Now~~ George was able to do all of ~~that~~ this, ~~was~~ because he has been foremost a student of history. ~~Now~~ we do not believe that we can learn a great deal from ~~history~~ since we rely on conversion, and on new

NOV-01-1994 15:57

212+874+2178

96%

P.02

11/01/94

15:54

004

beginnings but his works on 19th-century diplomacy are extraordinarily instructive for our own day, and they've been written with a simplicity and an eloquence that stamp them as unique. And through all of this, George has remained quintessentially American, and not simply ed relyin on an analysis of interests but has kept in mind the moral component of foreign policy. And let me just read the way he ended his great article on containment: "The thoughtful observer will find no cause for complaint in the challenge to American society. He will either experience a certain gratitude to a providence by which by providing the American people with its challenge, it has made their entire security as a nation dependent on their pulling themselves together and accepting the responsibilities of moral and political leadership that history plainly intended them to bear." The ultimate task of a leader is to take his

NOV-01-1994 15:57

212+874+2178

95%

P.04

11/01/94

15:54

005

they are ~~they have~~
people from where it is to where it has never been that
is a lonely enterprise requiring great courage. But a
history has ~~speeded up~~ that
and this is why prophets are also
never ~~ed~~ in their own country. But in our time, ~~through~~
the process of being ~~capable of~~ evaluating
has speeded up, and so I am proud to be able to be here? Prophetic
differs
who is ~~ed~~
to pay tribute to a prophet with honor in his own
country, and whose achievements have been so vastly
unrecognized, and I've been asked to read the criteria
for the George F. Kennan Award for Distinguished Public
Service: "The National Committee on American Foreign
Policy is establishing the George F. Kennan Award as a
tribute to Ambassador Kennan for his eminent public
service as a statesman and diplomat. Ambassador Kennan
decisively contributed to the defining of the national
interests of the United States and provided the
theoretical foundations for a policy that became
synonymous with his name. The Americans to be honored

NOV-01-1994 15:58

212+874+2178

95%

P.05

11/01/94

15:55

006

11

~~Templar~~ ex____ily or have made seminal contributions to defining

tribute to a great man.

Arthur McViney so

Professor Schlesinger: I am honored to be invited to

 participate in this great occasion, and to be given

 about foreign policy, ~~I will~~

 Henry mentioned in his remarks, ~~I would like to~~ emphasize what

 should be so, but George Kennan acquired a spurious

 Machiavellian, because he said that foreign policy should

 be based on national interests, and the people who were

NOV-01-1994 15:58

212+874+2178

95%

P.06