In my first Substack Article entitled “George F. Kennan/Raymond Robbins”, I opened with a little known statement by Kennan, which over the years has been forgotten. It is hidden in his two volume “Soviet-American Relations, 1917-1920”. It appears in the second volume published on January 1, 1956 and entitled “Russia Leaves the War”., p.242. Commenting on Raymond Robbins, a major American character in Russia during the revolution, Kennan stated: “Robbins was not a party to that deep-seated trait of American psychology which tends to make an inscrutable devil out of any external adversary, to deny him the quality of common humanity, to expect of him the worst, and to question the value and propriety of occupying one’s self seriously with the study of the adversary’s motives, his point of view, and his personality”. I call this THE KENNAN OBSERVATION.
During the work for my Substack article “Alexander Dugin, Putin’s Brain”, I ran directly into the KENNAN OBSERVATION. After having read books by and about Dugin, I decided to check the internet to see what was available concerning him. Much to my joy and surprise, was a just-released video of an interview of Alexander Dugin by Dimitri Simes, Jr. Over one hour Simes posed four questions and Dugin went off! I made copious notes, hoping to use the information to support my article. The next day I could not read my nervous handwriting. Immediately I attempted to download the video. It was gone with the notation, “This video is not available in your country”. However there were many Youtube articles on Dugin, all negative. …But no Dugin! The KENNAN OBSERVATION had reared its ugly head. Putin’s brain is a bad man.
Amongst hundreds of other examples of THE KENNAN OBSERVATION is the interview of President Vladimir Putin by the intrepid Tucker Carlson. I viewed with amazement the over two hour interview. Carlson, who has a large following, is reported to have had his Putin program viewed or downloaded by over fifty million. Two hours is a lot to ask Americans, who have no respect for Putin, to sit for, especially when Putin started with a thirty minute lecture on Russian/Ukrainian history. It is hard for many typical Americans to sit through a thirty minute recount of history, a subject that is eschewed in American education today. After the thirty minute history talk, the interview continued for another two hours. What ensued? Almost everyone I talked to for days were commenting on the interview. All of them except two, got their info from third sources, colored by third source bias….As usual. the reaction was negative. THE KENNAN OBSERVATION was in full force! Putin is a bad man.
And this brings us to the sad story of Russian dissident Alexie Navalny, dead at the age of 45. Navalny’s death was immediately reported by the Western press as having been murdered by Putin. In fact, the next day the American President said “Putin killed Navalny”. However, in the Kyiv Press, a newspaper/blog not sympathetic towards Russia, Navalny’s death was reported differently! The Ukrainian newspaper stated: “Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has said that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died of a blood clot.. ..Budanov said, ”I may disappoint you, but as far as we know, he indeed died as a result of a blood clot”.” Now Budanov has a position equivalent to the head of our CIA. Any report of Budanov’s opinion in the Western press? Any serious report in the Western Media about Gonzalo Lira, an American journalist dying in a Ukrainian jail?… NO! ….THE KENNAN OBSERVATION raises its ugly head again in both the Navalny and Lira cases. Putin is a bad man.
I plan on exploring the taproot of today’s disastrous American-Russian Foreign Policy beginning in1920 with the American Embassy in Latvia. The early days will include the youthful Kennan and other interesting personalities. My aim is to explain how we arrived at where we are today. The path is not exactly as most Americans perceive it.
The true story is written in books no longer read.
References
Kennan, George F. The Decision to Intervene. Princeton University Press, 1958.
Kennan, George F. Russia Leaves the War. Princeton University Press, 1956
NO NUKES —Humanity
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE—Justice
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER—Scott Ritter
TO UNDERSTAND RUSSIA WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND OURSELVES—Michael Basta
OPEN THE KENNEDY FILES—Americans who want to understand ourselves