Through the History of the Cold War: The Correspondence of George F. Kennan and John Lukacs

In September 1952, John Lukacs, then a young and unknown historian, wrote George Kennan (1904—2005), the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, asking one of the nation's best—known diplomats what he thought of Lukacs's own views on Kennan's widely debated idea of containing rather than militarily confronting the Soviet Union. A month later, to Lukacs's surprise, he received a personal reply from Kennan.

So began an exchange of letters that would continue for more than fifty years. Lukacs woul...