The History That Made the World Today
The Foreign Affairs Interview
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The Lessons for American Policy and Strategy Through the Cold War
John Avlon: I'm often struck in hearing the way these things are invoked in policy conversations at how crude and understanding policymakers often have of the events that kind of, you know, debate among historians becomes much more complicated than the mythologies that these incidents hold. He says Kennan saw those as extremes to be avoided and saw policy as somehow balancing, walking that tightrope. Avlon: In life, they will have to make hard choices between these things. Things won't be that simple. But there is enough interest in the question that we can spend a whole semester going through history discussing this with students.
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