Summary of George F. Kennan's American Diplomacy

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 I would like to discuss the six lectures on foreign policy that I gave at Stanford University. The concept of these lectures stems from my preoccupation with the problems of foreign policy today.
#2 The Americans of 1898 had forgotten a great deal that had been known to their forefathers of a hundred years before. They had become so accustomed to their security that they had forgotten that it had any foundations outside their continent.
#3 The Spanish-American War was the result of a situation in Cuba. It was a tragic, hopeless situation that marked the decline of a colonial relationship. We have seen other such situations since, and some of them not so long ago.
#4 There had been some improvement in the two decades between 1875 and 1895. But in 1897, things went downhill again. The Spanish minister in Washington wrote an indiscreet letter in which he spoke slightingly of President McKinley, calling him a would-be politician. This letter leaked, and was published in the New York papers, causing much indignation and resentment.

Sujets

• Colonisation
• International Relations
• Political Science
• Diplomacy
• Diplomatie (homonymie)

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 16 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822512733
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on George F. Kennan's American Diplomacy
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I would like to discuss the six lectures on foreign policy that I gave at Stanford University. The concept of these lectures stems from my preoccupation with the problems of foreign policy today.

#2

The Americans of 1898 had forgotten a great deal that had been known to their forefathers of a hundred years before. They had become so accustomed to their security that they had forgotten that it had any foundations outside their continent.

#3

The Spanish-American War was the result of a situation in Cuba. It was a tragic, hopeless situation that marked the decline of a colonial relationship. We have seen other such situations since, and some of them not so long ago.

#4

There had been some improvement in the two decades between 1875 and 1895. But in 1897, things went downhill again. The Spanish minister in Washington wrote an indiscreet letter in which he spoke slightingly of President McKinley, calling him a would-be politician. This letter leaked, and was published in the New York papers, causing much indignation and resentment.

#5

The Spanish government could not help its minister’s indiscretion, and it promptly removed him from his job. The American government, however, was not influenced by these last-minute concessions from the Spanish government.

#6

The Cuban War of Independence was the result of many factors, but most importantly, it was the result of American opinion, the state of American politics, and the warmongering of the American press.

#7

The American military operation in the Philippines in August 1898 was the most important and probably decisive consideration that led to the country taking the islands away from Spain and putting them under American control.

#8

The decisions that led to the final annexation of the Philippines not only, but also Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Hawaiian Islands, were extremely important from a political standpoint. They marked the first extensions of American sovereignty beyond North America.

#9

The debate over the acquisition of new territories was long and voluminous. The proponents of expansion argued that it was our manifest destiny to acquire these territories, while the opponents argued that it was against the principles of the Declaration of Independence and unconstitutional.

#10

The strongest argument for the imperialists was the argument of what has been called contingent necessity, which stated that unless we took these territories, someone else would and that this would be even worse. But in reality, there was no real likelihood of anyone else intervening.

#11

The question of what effect the imperial policy will have on ourselves is what we should consider when we think about our colonial possessions. If our society is only capable of dealing with the quantity called citizen, then its potential scope is limited.

#12

When we think about the Spanish-American War, we can see that there was not much of a deliberate and careful measuring of the national interest. When it came to the use of our armed forces, popular moods, political pressures, and inner-governmental intrigue were decisive.

#13

In the first half of the twentieth century, the American government sent notes to the European powers calling them to observe the principle of the Open Door in China, which was equality for all. But at the time, British traders were not sure how this would all work out.

#14

The British government had three ways of dealing with the situation: openly, by emphasizing the importance of the maintenance of the Open Door in China; covertly, by looking for some sort of special agreement with another power or powers to oppose Russia’s strategic penetration of Chinese territory; and thirdly, by developing a sphere of influence in the Yangtze Valley.

#15

The