Do you think that George F. Kennan was right in his assessment of the Soviet Union, or was he exaggerating the risk posed by communism?

(My thought)

Kennan was correct that if contained communism would collapse from within. That is exactly what happened.

Assessing the risk between the Soviet Union and USA is problematic. There was no real reason for the USA a maritime power and Russia a continental power to be adversaries.

The threat of communism was not overstated. One of the primary tenets of communism is to promote the “violent overthrow" of the capitalistic system. The USA is the leader of the capitalistic world. Thus the threat from communism had to be taken seriously.

The animosity between the USA and USSR was solely ideological.

Today it makes no sense to keep the animosity between the two countries. Russia (for as much as I know) is no longer communist. Our nations have far more common interests than conflict of interests.

answer; clelia mosher;