George Kennan's American Diplomacy provides anyone studying American politics with an accurate glimpse of American ideology, misperception and thought in the first half of the twentieth century. Even though this book is a collection of lectures where there is obvious subjectivity, Kennan successfully displays an objective view on the topics he discusses in the lecture. Kennan's lecture gives the reader a panoramic view and solid background of American thinking about themselves and the rest of the world, with respect to events leading up to the conflict with the Soviets. As a result, Kennan gives a clearly articulated picture of his thoughts. Kennan explains his ideas in a manner which the average college level student could understand, but does it in a sophisticated manner, which is refreshing. .
Kennan compares American security ideas to the Roman Empire because Americans had a sense of security and superiority that had not been seen in the world since those times. He compares American ideas and situation in 1950 versus American ideas and situation in 1900 and discusses this from a subjective and objective point of view in order to back up his opinion and present a clear case without discussing the situation at a complete slant, which I think shows how qualified he was to influence American foreign policy because he had every right to speak about things subjectively because he was such an authority and had good insight due to his ability to look at the situation from every perspective, not just the American perspective. I believe Kennan attempting to be as unbiased as possible in this lecture allows him to give anyone reading the book a good chance to develop their own argument, which is a good quality because he is not trying to force his opinion on anyone. .
" our national consciousness is dominated at present by a sense of insecurity greater even than that of many people of Western Europe who stand closer to, and a position far more vulnerable to, those things that are the main source of our concern.
