>Oh, there were a lot of people who took the ideals of decolonization,
>democracy, human rights, and economic development very, very seriously
>indeed--practically everyone except the realist cabal in the State
>Department, in fact. An administration that believed that "we should cease
>to talk about vague and...unreal objectives such as human rights, the
>raising of living standards, and democratization" wouldn't have pursued the
>Marshall Plan; the creation of the IMF and the World Bank; the GATT to
>allow foreign exporters access to U.S. markets; much of U.S. post-WWII
>foreign policy up until the launching of the Korean War wa smade by people
>who considered objectives such as "human rights, the raising of living
>standards, and democratization" to be very, very real.
>
>That is what Noam Chomsky is trying to hide by claiming that George
>Kennan--a flint-eyed realist if there ever was one--was the "dovish wing"
>of the post-WWII American foreign policy establishment. He is trying to
>keep people from noticing that there ever was a guy named Harry Dexter
>White. He's trying to throw down the memory hole the historical memory of a
>powerful--and very effective--group that took very seriously indeed the
>ideals that Kennan thought naive.
>
>Chomsky's trying to hide the ball, and keep you from knowing the history as
>it really happened...
So why'd Kennan get the boot then? And just who were those doves who approved NSC-68? And why did Acheson call the beginning of the Korean war the most glorious two weeks in history?
Doug