George Kennan An American Diplomacy

Throughout the history of the United States, different foreign policies have been very important in terms of the relationship of the United States with foreign countries. George Kennan, the author of An American Diplomacy presents the history of foreign policy in the United States. In addition, Kennan presents two dire foreign policies that were used in the U.S for over the past century and a half. The two policies are liberalism and realism. In order to understand the U.S’ international relations with foreign countries, it is important to understand the history and how much a factor liberalism and realism had towards the United States and foreign policy.
The foreign policy of liberalism focuses on promoting social equality all around the world.
The strategy of unconditional surrender is a form of surrender in which the goal of the country (who is forcing the other country to surrender) to be annihilated and to be completely wiped out. “ Both these wars ended... it’s the view that the purpose of war was not to bring about a mutually advantageous compromise with an external adversary seen as totally evil and inhuman, but to destroy completely the power and the will of that adversary” (Kennan, 188). This particular form of negotiation/surrender is often aimed towards countries that are portrayed as immoral and inhumane. This strategy revolves around morals and humanitarianism. One example of unconditional surrender being implemented in American history was when the United States used such a method against Japan and Germany during the conclusion of World War II. During World War II, through the perspective of the United States, Japan and Germany were considered as evil nations who were immoral. Being aware of this, the main focus the United States was to annihilate Germany and Japan. This was demonstrated when no treaty was made for the aim of having a peaceful agreement. Instead, the United States unanimously defeated Germany and defeated Japan with two atomic bombs at Hiroshima and
Feelings and morals are not taken into consideration when foreign policy of realism is implemented. George F. Kennan believed realism was the better foreign policy compared to liberalism. “Kennan was a realist... he believed that American foreign policy was motivated largely by liberal ideals, which frequently landed the United States in trouble. In fact, he claimed that liberalism, which he identified with legalism and moralism, was largely responsible for the foreign policy problems facing America in 1950” (Mearsheimer, x). Kennan believes that whenever American foreign policies are based on the stasis of liberalism, the United States finds itself with problems involving international relations. For example, Kennan argued that unconditional surrender is a tactic that plants the seeds for revenge. In addition, he stated how the strategy of unconditional surrender is a costly sin . “The pursuit of unconditional surrender is the cardinal sin of international politics for Kennan, and it is liberal democracies like the United States that demand it” (Mearsheimer, xxix). Most of the time, countries that surrender unconditionally want revenge on the country that overpowered them. Most of the time, revenge takes place in the form of future wars, For example: when Germany was defeated through unconditional surrender (from the United States and the Allied