George F. Kennan

George Frost Kennan (1904–2005) was an American diplomat, historian, and grand strategist recognized as the intellectual father of the Cold War policy of 'Containment'. Educated at Princeton, Kennan joined the Foreign Service, becoming one of the State Department's first trained Russian specialists, serving in Moscow during the 1930s purges and World War II.

In February 1946, while serving in Moscow, Kennan sent the famous 8,000-word 'Long Telegram', explaining the deep historical and ideological sources of Soviet insecurity and expansionism. In July 1947, publishing anonymously as 'Mr. X' in Foreign Affairs ('The Sources of Soviet Conduct'), he advocated 'a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies', predicting that internal contradictions would eventually cause Soviet communism to collapse from within. As first director of the State Department Policy Planning Staff, he helped draft the Marshall Plan.