Just what is Trump’s foreign policy?

American diplomat George F. Kennan, author of the Long Telegram, in 1947. By Harris & Ewing — This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs divisionunder the digital ID hec.12925.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6793416

Taking a page from Stalinist Russia

In 1946, puzzled by the seemingly irrational foreign policy of the United States’ erstwhile World War II ally, the Soviet Union, President Truman’s State Department leadership queried our Moscow embassy for an explanation. In response, diplomat and Soviet expert George Kennan wrote the longest diplomatic cable ever sent up to that time. Sometimes referred to as the “Long Telegram,” Kennan’s explanation became the basis for our Soviet foreign policy over the next forty years.

Kennan explained that the Soviets would not respond to reason. He argued that their aggressive policies came not from their communist ideology, but from Russia’s traditional sense of insecurity. In essence, Kennan argued that directing attention to an outside enemy assisted the Soviets in focusing attention away from their domestic problems.

But the Soviets’ sense of insecurity was based upon a reality: they were weaker than the West. They may try to undermine the Western powers led by the United States, but as long as the West remains united, and offers an alternative, positive message — the “City on the Hill” as Reagan called it — the Soviet expansionism could be contained. This philosophy became the basis for our policy of “containment” which eventually led to the fall of the Soviet Union.