The Legend of George F. Kennan

Since 1946, National War College student warriors have indeed pursued Kennan's strategic trail, offering variations on the policies of ways to win the peace. Their essays have addressed such issues of the day as nationbuilding, peacekeeping, humanitarian missions, multiple uses of the military, and ways to design interagency decisionmaking entities of the first order. If students have needed inspiration, a bronze plaque on the hallowed wall summarizes in short shrift the deeds of George F. Kennan. New students note it in passing and wonder if there really is anything new in their universe about which they can write as they consider the challenge of becoming the next Mr. X. Sixty years of strategic thinking in peace and war is a long time in the life of a national security institution such as the National War College. Kennan was around for 59 of those years and remained influential until his death in 2005 at age 101. Because of his contributions to the strategic thinking of his time--to the concept of containment and Commander Paul B. Thompson, USN, is a Professor of National Security Studies at the National War College. d theaTruman Doctrine--Kennan will always have a presence at the War College. He was there at the commencement of academics, helped design a relevant curriculum, and unilaterally set the standard for intellectual contribution. Writing in his 1967 memoirs, he described the original mission in 1946, when he and his colleagues prepared the curriculum for senior-level students of national policy: "We could, through our activities, contribute in a way that no previous institution could do to the thinking about problems of national policy that was going on all over Washington in that winter of transition and uncertainty." ; Published in the Joint Force Quarterly, n41 p45-47, 2nd quarter 2006.