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IAS houses the Kennan collection, and no doubt there are hidden treasures, like Oppenheimer's file: https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/2604 https://alb

IAS houses the Kennan collection, and no doubt there are hidden treasures, like Oppenheimer's file: https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/2604 https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/2604 Kennan was pivotal I think in helping to "go" the Manhattan Project: Oral History Interview of George F. Kennan, February 27, 1990 https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/627 https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/627

082349872349872 4y ago
> The Cold War might not have taken the forms it did if we had known what the other people were really doing instead of acting on the basis of our own worst fears. And I've become convinced that our government is not a government in which things should be done in secret, for better or for worse. If that's a limitation, it's a limitation that comes from the nature of our society. — GFK (Linebarger also has some sorrow concerning over-secrecy in his Psychological Warfare) ==== also an interesting discussion of the role of money ("the golden rule") in US politics, ca. 1950s ==== > I don't see quite the same number of really great and revered older scholars that seemed to be around when I first came [to IAS]. Of course, we owed a lot of those to Hitler and to Stalin who pushed them out into our society. They were really great European scholars. There are not so many of those, it seems to me, in this country. — GFK
- euroderf 4y ago
  > The Cold War might not have taken the forms it did if we had known what the other people were really doing instead of acting on the basis of our own worst fears. And I've become convinced that our government is not a government in which things should be done in secret, for better or for worse. If that's a limitation, it's a limitation that comes from the nature of our society. — GFK Does (did) he have an opinion on the record about Iran-Contra ?
  - 082349872349872 4y ago
    Given that the interview took place in 1990, post-1986, I think that was his on-the-record opinion about Iran-Contra. (assuming, which I believe we can, his opinions are consistent enough for particular instances to have the same valence as general platitudes?)

082349872349872 4y ago

> The Cold War might not have taken the forms it did if we had known what the other people were really doing instead of acting on the basis of our own worst fears. And I've become convinced that our government is not a government in which things should be done in secret, for better or for worse. If that's a limitation, it's a limitation that comes from the nature of our society. — GFK (Linebarger also has some sorrow concerning over-secrecy in his Psychological Warfare) ==== also an interesting discussion of the role of money ("the golden rule") in US politics, ca. 1950s ==== > I don't see quite the same number of really great and revered older scholars that seemed to be around when I first came [to IAS]. Of course, we owed a lot of those to Hitler and to Stalin who pushed them out into our society. They were really great European scholars. There are not so many of those, it seems to me, in this country. — GFK

euroderf 4y ago
> The Cold War might not have taken the forms it did if we had known what the other people were really doing instead of acting on the basis of our own worst fears. And I've become convinced that our government is not a government in which things should be done in secret, for better or for worse. If that's a limitation, it's a limitation that comes from the nature of our society. — GFK Does (did) he have an opinion on the record about Iran-Contra ?
- 082349872349872 4y ago
  Given that the interview took place in 1990, post-1986, I think that was his on-the-record opinion about Iran-Contra. (assuming, which I believe we can, his opinions are consistent enough for particular instances to have the same valence as general platitudes?)