[PEN-L:1593] George Kennan

[DamonMac at aol.com]

Kennan was also the one who  later lamented that " the image of a Stalinist
Russia poised and yearning to attack the West, and deterred only by
(America's) possession of atomic weapons, was largely a creation of the
Western imagination."  He cautioned against "demonizing the adversary,
overestimating enemy strength and overmilitarizing the Western response." He
goes on to say that ". . . the West did not  . . . win the Cold War through
geopolitical containment and military deterrence ..." or by "  . . . the
Reagan military buildup . . . Instead 'victory' came when a new generation of
Soviet leaders realized how badly their system at home and their policies
abroad had failed." He doesn't sound like too much of a hawk to me.

Damon