gary galhtsod: George Frost Kennan

George Frost Kennan

Time-line:

1904 - born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, America.
1921-1925 - studying at Princeton University.
1927 - took his first job as a temporary vice-consul in Geneva.
1929 - study Russian at the University of Berlin's Seminar fur Orientalische Sprachen.
1931 - married Annelise Srenson.
1932 - went to Moscow with Ambassador William C. Bullitt as a translator.
1934-1937 - posted to the Moscow embassy.
1938 - posted to the Prague embassy.
1939 - posted to the Berlin embassy.
1939- 1941 - was interned in Germany.
1945 - returned to Moscow.
1946 - wrote a long telegram to America government, it is the most famous communication in the history of the State Department.
1946 - recalled to Washington as deputy commandant for foreign affairs at National War College, and wrote the 'X-Article'.
1947 - designed the 'Marshall Plan' with Will Clayton and Chip Bohlem.
1950 - pointed as director of policy planning.
1950 - took a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
1952 - returned to the diplomatic service as the US ambassador to Moscow.
1956 - published 'Russia Leaves the War'.
1961 - appointed to Yugoslavia as a US ambassador.
1963 - resigned from the State Department, US.
1967 - published his first volume of memoirs.
1989 - awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
2005 - died in Princeton, New Jersey.

Turning Point:

He enrolled at Princeton University in 1921 and graduated in 1925, Kennan later said that 'Princeton had prepared my mind for further growth.
Kennan concluded that he could best be satisfied by a career in the Foreign Service.
On 13 December 1931, the first ambassador William C. Bullitt went to Moscow with Kennan, the trip lasted ten days in total but it began a lifelong fascination with Russia.
Frustrated by the Truman administration's inability, Kennan cabled Washington a six-thousand-word long telegram about Stalin's Soviet Union's threat.

Achievement:

A temporary vice-consul in Geneva.
Became fluent in German and Russian.
Member of embassy of Moscow, Prague, Berlin.
Counselor at the American Legation in Lisbon, Portugal.
His telegram was the most famous communication in the history of the State Department.
Published an essay in Foreign Affairs titled 'The Sources of Soviet Conduct'.
One of the people designing the Marshall Plan.
The director of Policy Planning Staff.
Worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
Ambassador of the US to Moscow.
Ambassador of the US to Yugoslavia.
Won the Bancroft Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award for non-fiction and the Francis Parkman Prize.
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour.

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