One sometimes feels a guest of one's time and not a member of its household. --George F. Kennan
Such was the experience of Kennan, whose 'realist' approach to foreign policy was respected neither in his time nor ours. He vehemently opposed the 'idealism' of those who wished to base public policy on Western, Christian morality, which assumed the exalted notion that the United States had a 'messianic' purpose to set the world aright. Wow--what a nice corrective to the now dominant prejudice toward American exceptionalism, owned and voiced by so many politicians.
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