Memoirs by Kennan George F. (George Frost) 1904-2005

Author:Kennan, George F. (George Frost), 1904-2005
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Kennan, George F. (George Frost), 1904-2005, Ambassadors, Historians
Publisher: Boston, Little, Brown
Published: 1967-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

Communist Party. But when, in mid-1941, we found ourselves Hghting on the same side as the Soviet Union in the war against Hitler, the shock of the Non-Agression Pact was quickly forgotten; and by the end of the war, so far as I can judge from the evidence I have seen, the penetration was quite extensive — more so, prob-al)l\', than at any time in the past, particularly in the hastily recruited wartime bureaucracies, the occupational establishments in Germany and Japan, and certain departments of the government normally concerned, for the most part, with domestic affairs and unaccustomed to dealing with problems of national security.

This penetration was less important, though by no means nonexistent, in the State Department, even during wartime; and never at any time did 1 see reason to believe that it was of such dimensions as to lead to any extensive Communist influence on the formulation of policy. Its importance there was presumably increased, to be sure, when, in the aftermath of the war, certain of the wartime agencies went into liquidation and considerable portions of their personnel were blanketed into the department. But this situation was met at a relatively earlier point by drastic tightening of security rules and standards. And the Foreign Service itself, as distinct from the Department of State, being a disciphned career organization entry into which had been largely governed in recent years by strict competitive examination, had at no time been importantly affected by the problem of foreign penetration.

By 1947, at the time 1 came into the State Department, this problem, as it seemed to me then and seems to me now, was well on the way to being mastered, to the extent it ever can be. In part this was the consecjuence of the higher security standards. In part it may be attributed to the fact that many people who had previously considered themselves friends or followers of the Soviet leadership were given cause to hesitate and to reconsider their positions as evidence increased of the brutal and undemocratic conduct of Soviet troops and authorities throughout Eastern and Central Europe, of exten-

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