On February 22nd, 1946, George F. Kenan, a career diplomat working in the American embassy in Moscow,

sent an 8,000-word cable to the State Department in Washington, D.C. In it, he explained why the

Soviet Union behaved as it did, aligning its unique combination of a communist ideology

and historical Russian paranoia and suspicion. He also gave a prescription for how the United States should respond.

Although we couldn't have known at the time,

that message became the foundation of American policy during the Cold War.

Learn more about the long telegram and its influence on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Thank you. and its influence on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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To understand why the long telegram was written, we need to understand the geopolitical climate in the months immediately after the end of the Second World War. In late 1945 and early

1946, the wartime alliance was unraveling. Soviet forces were entrenching in Eastern Europe,

disputes over Poland, the Balkans and Germany were sharpening, and crises flared in

Iran and over the Turkish straits. Communist parties were gaining influence in France and Italy. Britain

was exhausted. The United States held the atomic monopoly while rapidly demobilizing, and no

clear peace settlements or security framework existed. The Americans couldn't understand why the Soviets were being so difficult to work with

after having been allies for the last several years.

The Soviets refused to join the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,

which the Americans considered to be key international institutions for the future.

What really caught the attention of American policymakers was a speech

...