George F. Kennan

George F. Kennan (born February 16, 1904, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.—died March 17, 2005, Princeton, New Jersey) was an American diplomat and historian best known for his successful advocacy of a “containment policy” to oppose Soviet expansionism following World War II. Upon graduation from Princeton in 1925, Kennan entered the foreign service. He was sent overseas immediately and spent several years in Geneva; Berlin; Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia; and other “listening posts” around the Soviet Union,...