| Summary/Abstract |
Looking back on how decisively the Cold War ended in America’s favour, it is easy to forget how much doubt there was at the start, among Americans and Soviets alike, that the United States was up to the task of defending its vision of the post-war world order. George Kennan, the storied American diplomat responsible for the 1946 ‘Long Telegram’ from Moscow, recalled
in his memoirs that the Soviets ‘thought it probable that ... Americans, in particular, would not be able to muster, as a nation, the leadership, the imagination, the political skill, the material resources, and above all the national self-discipline necessary’ to prevail in the emerging global contest.
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