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The Manichean threat of "authoritarian" regimes has roots in FDR's "No end save victory," then in the Truman Doctrine: "Truman ... hailed the US and its unnamed adversary into stylized roles, one democratic and free, the other authoritarian and coercive. Greece & Turkey 1/
were lacking in agency; they were passive, acted-upon ... victims of predation, prospective beneficiaries of US protection..." US and its rival not nation-states, "but embodiments of larger historical forces, 'ways of life' that acted through and upon them." RK uses "way of 2/
life" 10x in this book.
FDR was right. Kennan regretted Truman's strident binarism. But these white-hat black-hat formulations remain persuasive if misleading. Marusic's rev is worthwhile; also Ronald Krebs, Narrative and the Making of US Nat'l Security, my source above. 3/
FDR was right. Kennan regretted Truman's strident binarism. But these white-hat black-hat formulations remain persuasive if misleading. Marusic's rev is worthwhile; also Ronald Krebs, Narrative and the Making of US Nat'l Security, my source above. 3/
Inter alia, Krebs nicely points out the plight of smaller less powerful states -- Greece, Turkey -- in these Manichean scenarios. 4/ cambridge.org/core/books/nar…
