Resources:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/documents/episode-1/kennan.htm
http://www.milestonedocuments.com/documents/view/george-f-kennans-long-telegram
http://college.cengage.com/history/ayers_primary_sources/novikovtelegram_1946.htm
http://ludeman.edublogs.org/files/2010/12/novikov-telegram-1j6xp8f.pdfhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-7709.1991.tb00146.x/abstract;jsessionid=2CE54366BAA3B67ECD109ECFD3308FDD.d02t03?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false
Communism vs. Capitalism
In 1946 George F. Kennan, an American diplomat and Foreign Service officer in the Soviet Union, and Nikolai Novikov, a Soviet Ambassador to the United States, both wrote reports outlining the status of American and Soviet relations and set up outlines for each country's respective policies.
As a response to the rising threat of communism The United States adopted a long-term strategy against the Soviet Union. This plan would work for the gradual disintegration of the Soviet Union's policies.
Kennan was praised for having outlined such a complete view of Soviet postwar polices. Alternatively, Novikov represented a simplistic view of American policies and intentions toward post-war nations.
The Strategy of Containment
George F. Kennan's "Long Telegram"
and Nikolai Novikov's Telegram
George F. Kennan’s ”Long Telegram” (1946)
George F. Kennan was an American diplomat and Foreign Service officer, a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War, also known as ”the father of containment” which is the basic U.S. strategy for fighting the Cold War with the S.U.
He articulated his thoughts about the Soviet policy in the ”Long Telegram” in which he also laid out the chief features of the Soviet state.
Nikolai Novikov’s Telegram to the Soviet Union was a more propaganda-filled account focusing on American policies and assumptions. His descriptions of American policies included a calculation of American interests since before the end of WWII, a wish to infiltrate national economies to spread capitalism and gain oil.
Novikov outlines a more preventative response to American post-war polices. The conclusion includes an assertion that The United States is prepared for a war against the Soviet Union.
"Long Telegram”
February 22, 1946, U.S. Embassy in Moscow to Washington D.C.
5 major questions:
•Basic features of post-war Soviet outlook
•Background of this outlook
•Projection in practical policy on official level
•Projection on unofficial level
•Practical deductions from standpoint of U.S. policy
George F. Kennan’s “Long Telegram" gave an explanatory account of the background of Soviet politics and policies. Kennan focused on where and how the policies of communism were rooted in the Soviet state.
Kennan concludes his account by asserting that The United States can contain the threat of communism by protecting the health and strength of its own economy, society, and culture. The “malignant parasite” of communism will not penetrate a vigorous society.
Conclusion:
“Capitalist Encirclement”
and
“World Supremacy”
Main Points:
•USSR still lives in antagonistic ”capitalist encirclement”
•Stalin (1927): battle between the socialist and the capitalist center will decide the fate of capitalism and communism in the entire world
•Insoluble conflicts
Summary:
•Novikov's document was consciously written as a response to Kennan's telegram
•Novikov mixes an extremely clear and prescient analysis of the then-current global political situation with a somewhat alarmist view of American military expansion
Main Points:
•Soviet efforts toward deepening the conflicts between capitalist powers imperialist war
•Russian fear from foreign penetration
•Russian participation in international organizations
•Soviet intention to pursuit autarchy
Main Ideas:
•The US's new interest in the Middle East comes at Britain's expense•the US is clearly trying to gain control of the oil resources of the Middle East
•“No less important goal of the campaign is the attempt to create an atmosphere of war psychosis”
Summary:
•With the U.S. there can be no permanent ”modus vivendi”
•No possibility for long-term, peaceful coexistence with the capitalist world
•Harmony of American society, traditional way of life are endangered
•Soviet Union is guarded against the Western World as a whole
Main Ideas:
•He generally refrains from Kennan's attempts at nation-state psychoanalysis
•Novikov recognizes that the US has an edge over Stalinist Russia in that it's an open border policy that allows the trade agreements and such to take place
Nikolai Novikov's Telgram
Washington, September 27, 1946
•Novikov was the Soviet Ambassador to the United States in 1946-1947 and he prepared his telegram for Stalin and Molotov
•Section 3: „on the establishment of a peacetime army, not on a volunteer basis but on the basis of universal military service…”
228 bases in the Atlantic Ocean and 258 in the Pacific
photo credit Nasa / Goddard Space Flight Center / Reto Stöckli