5
1
9.99
In Stock
Overview
"At the end of the 1920's the Foreign Service of the United States... introduced a program of regional specialization. It was a fortunate innovation, for, among other things, it provided the Service with a group of well‐trained Russian‐language specialists just at the time when the United States was beginning its new and troubled association with the Soviet Union.
One of the first of these was Charles E. Bohlen, and for the next 40 years he was to be involved in every major development in Soviet American relations, serving under William C. Bullitt in the Moscow embassy in 1934, acting as interpreter and adviser at the wartime conferences at Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam, succeeding George F. Kennan as Ambassador to Moscow in 1953, and, in later years, advising Presidents about Russian attitudes at the time of the Cuban missile crisis and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Diplomatic memoirs are generally thin stuff and often mere exercises in self‐inflation. This cannot be said of this absorbing account. Anyone who reads it will understand what George Kennan meant when he described his friend as 'a man interested... both passionately and dispassionately in everything that concerned the Russian scene.' It is clear that, from that bright snowy day when he jumped down on the station platform at Negoreloye in March, 1934, until the very end of his career, his hunger to learn all he could about Russia and its rulers was unabated; but it is also apparent that he always strove to remain objective about what he learned and to remember that his role was not to pass judgment on the behavior of the Soviet Government but to understand it and to use that understanding for the good of his country. His memoirs are the record of how he accomplished this... the account of the various phases of the author's career is rich in circumstantial detail and in anecdote. Particularly effective are Mr. Bohlen's descriptions of the men he met during his career. These include a shrewd assessment of de Gaulle, whom Bohlen saw frequently during his term as Ambassador to France from 1962 until 1968, and a series of impressions of the Secretaries of State under whom he served. Among these he admired Marshall most and Dulles, who unceremoniously exiled him to Manila in 1957, least." — Gordon A. Craig, The New York Times
"A fascinating account of a most extraordinary career." — W. Averell Harriman
"No single person was present at more of the high-level diplomatic encounters of the wartime and immediate post-war periods than Charles Bohlen. And none was better equipped to judge them. His memoirs have, therefore, unique historical value and should go far to answer the questions of those who are now challenging the soundness of American decisions in that time." — George F. Kennan
"This book is original, reflective, well written, full of new aperçus for the journalist and fresh fuel for the historian... an admirable book." — The Economist
"Few diplomats covered as much ground, fewer have written so compelling a book... [a] solid, worthy book." — Times Literary Supplement
"Absorbing throughout... There is much that is amusing, for Bohlen has a bump of irreverence, and much that is new... A definite contribution to history." — Joseph P. Lash
"The book... is of major historical importance... for its perception and the light which it sheds on the statesmen and the major crises of our time." — Edward Weeks, The Atlantic Monthly
"[Bohlen was] one of the leading diplomats of his time but also an outstanding connoisseur of Russian history and culture... an important book." — Adam B. Ulam, Slavic Review
"[An] extraordinary book... a dynamic narrative... for anyone... interested in the ups and downs of American-Soviet policies, this should prove a most useful book." — Stephen D. Kertesz, The Review of Politics
"[An] important book... I found these memoirs both fascinating and enlightening." — F. H. Soward, International Journal
One of the first of these was Charles E. Bohlen, and for the next 40 years he was to be involved in every major development in Soviet American relations, serving under William C. Bullitt in the Moscow embassy in 1934, acting as interpreter and adviser at the wartime conferences at Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam, succeeding George F. Kennan as Ambassador to Moscow in 1953, and, in later years, advising Presidents about Russian attitudes at the time of the Cuban missile crisis and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Diplomatic memoirs are generally thin stuff and often mere exercises in self‐inflation. This cannot be said of this absorbing account. Anyone who reads it will understand what George Kennan meant when he described his friend as 'a man interested... both passionately and dispassionately in everything that concerned the Russian scene.' It is clear that, from that bright snowy day when he jumped down on the station platform at Negoreloye in March, 1934, until the very end of his career, his hunger to learn all he could about Russia and its rulers was unabated; but it is also apparent that he always strove to remain objective about what he learned and to remember that his role was not to pass judgment on the behavior of the Soviet Government but to understand it and to use that understanding for the good of his country. His memoirs are the record of how he accomplished this... the account of the various phases of the author's career is rich in circumstantial detail and in anecdote. Particularly effective are Mr. Bohlen's descriptions of the men he met during his career. These include a shrewd assessment of de Gaulle, whom Bohlen saw frequently during his term as Ambassador to France from 1962 until 1968, and a series of impressions of the Secretaries of State under whom he served. Among these he admired Marshall most and Dulles, who unceremoniously exiled him to Manila in 1957, least." — Gordon A. Craig, The New York Times
"A fascinating account of a most extraordinary career." — W. Averell Harriman
"No single person was present at more of the high-level diplomatic encounters of the wartime and immediate post-war periods than Charles Bohlen. And none was better equipped to judge them. His memoirs have, therefore, unique historical value and should go far to answer the questions of those who are now challenging the soundness of American decisions in that time." — George F. Kennan
"This book is original, reflective, well written, full of new aperçus for the journalist and fresh fuel for the historian... an admirable book." — The Economist
"Few diplomats covered as much ground, fewer have written so compelling a book... [a] solid, worthy book." — Times Literary Supplement
"Absorbing throughout... There is much that is amusing, for Bohlen has a bump of irreverence, and much that is new... A definite contribution to history." — Joseph P. Lash
"The book... is of major historical importance... for its perception and the light which it sheds on the statesmen and the major crises of our time." — Edward Weeks, The Atlantic Monthly
"[Bohlen was] one of the leading diplomats of his time but also an outstanding connoisseur of Russian history and culture... an important book." — Adam B. Ulam, Slavic Review
"[An] extraordinary book... a dynamic narrative... for anyone... interested in the ups and downs of American-Soviet policies, this should prove a most useful book." — Stephen D. Kertesz, The Review of Politics
"[An] important book... I found these memoirs both fascinating and enlightening." — F. H. Soward, International Journal
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940162435211 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Plunkett Lake Press |
| Publication date: | 08/26/2021 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Sales rank: | 589,902 |
| File size: | 6 MB |
About the Author
Born in Clayton, New York, Charles “Chip” Eustis Bohlen (1904-1974) was educated at St. Paul’s school in Concord, New Hampshire and at Harvard. After joining the Foreign Service in 1929, he studied Russian in Paris under a newly instituted State Department program designed to train Russian speakers. He served two formative tours in Moscow in the 1930s. Assigned next to Japan, he was interned for six months in Tokyo after Pearl Harbor. Returning to Washington in the summer of 1942, he would again be immersed in Soviet affairs for the better part of the next ten years. In October 1943, he interpreted for Cordell Hull at the Moscow Foreign Ministers conference, a trial run for interpreting for Roosevelt at the Big Three conferences at Teheran (November 1943) and Yalta (January 1945). Bohlen worked closely with FDR’s adviser Harry Hopkins in the White House, and after FDR’s death, interpreted for Truman at the Potsdam conference (August 1945).
Under Truman (1945-1952), Bohlen worked as a special assistant for three Secretaries of State: James Byrnes, George Marshall (whom he revered) and Dean Acheson, becoming Counselor, the fourth ranking position in the State Department, in 1947. His was involved in all the major events and crises of the early Cold War including the Marshall plan, the Berlin blockade and the formation of NATO.
In 1953, President Eisenhower named Bohlen Ambassador to the Soviet Union. His confirmation turned out to be highly contentious because of Bohlen’s association with Yalta, but Eisenhower stuck by him. In Moscow, Bohlen was a keen and acute observer of post-Stalin developments in the Soviet Union, but his difficult relationship with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles kept him sidelined from any meaningful policy role and he felt underutilized.
In 1957, Dulles maneuvered him out of Moscow and sent him off to virtual exile as Ambassador to the Philippines. In 1959, Dulles’s successor Christian Herter brought Bohlen back to the State Department as a special adviser on Soviet affairs, a role he retained for a time after the election of John F. Kennedy who named Bohlen Ambassador to France in 1962, a position he filled with distinction at a time of difficult relations between de Gaulle and the United States. He served briefly as Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs in the State Department. Bohlen was considered, on a par with George Kennan, as the top Soviet specialist of his generation.
Under Truman (1945-1952), Bohlen worked as a special assistant for three Secretaries of State: James Byrnes, George Marshall (whom he revered) and Dean Acheson, becoming Counselor, the fourth ranking position in the State Department, in 1947. His was involved in all the major events and crises of the early Cold War including the Marshall plan, the Berlin blockade and the formation of NATO.
In 1953, President Eisenhower named Bohlen Ambassador to the Soviet Union. His confirmation turned out to be highly contentious because of Bohlen’s association with Yalta, but Eisenhower stuck by him. In Moscow, Bohlen was a keen and acute observer of post-Stalin developments in the Soviet Union, but his difficult relationship with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles kept him sidelined from any meaningful policy role and he felt underutilized.
In 1957, Dulles maneuvered him out of Moscow and sent him off to virtual exile as Ambassador to the Philippines. In 1959, Dulles’s successor Christian Herter brought Bohlen back to the State Department as a special adviser on Soviet affairs, a role he retained for a time after the election of John F. Kennedy who named Bohlen Ambassador to France in 1962, a position he filled with distinction at a time of difficult relations between de Gaulle and the United States. He served briefly as Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs in the State Department. Bohlen was considered, on a par with George Kennan, as the top Soviet specialist of his generation.
From the B&N Reads Blog
Page 1 of