Architect of Cold War dies at 101

George Kennan, the most celebrated American diplomat of his generation and prime architect of the Cold War policy of "containment" of the Soviet Union, has died. He was 101.

George Kennan, the most celebrated American diplomat of his generation and prime architect of the Cold War policy of "containment" of the Soviet Union, has died. He was 101.

Mr Kennan died at his home in Princeton, close to the university with which he had been associated for half a century. He left the diplomatic service in 1953. The previous year he had been appointed US Ambassador to Moscow but was declared persona non grata after five months, after he compared life in the Soviet Union to his experiences as a diplomat in pre-war Nazi Germany.

The high point of his career came in 1946, during an earlier stint in Moscow, when he sent Washington what has become known as the "Long Telegram," the best known and influential such missive in US history.

At a time when the motives of Stalin's Soviet Union baffled Westerners, Mr Kennan argued that while Moscow was "impervious to the logic of reason," it was "highly sensitive to the logic of force. He urged the US to "contain" the Soviets, countering its attempts to expand its influence, while waiting for the Communist system to collapse - which happened in 1991.

"Mr Kennan set a standard all his successors have sought to follow," said Morton Halperin, the State Department's director of policy planning during the Clinton administration.