It is a common sentiment that ideas have consequences. Good
ideas have good consequences and bad ideas have bad consequences. When Marx penned in the Communist
Manifesto that a spectre [was] haunting Europe — the spectre of
communism, he hardly envisaged that the revolutionary ideas posited would
become a rationale, or justification, for the slaughter of millions. Alas, in
the hands of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, Marx’s ideas became a scary ghost
indeed. So, who should we blame? Is Marx responsible for the dead, or should we
blame the so-called Communist practitioners, who manipulated then propagandized
Marx’s ideas to serve their own purposes. This dilemma illuminates yet another
commonly shared sentiment — It is difficult to put theory into practice, and
when doing so, it often occurs that the practitioners negate the very theory
they hypothesize.

During the Cold War, there was a battle of ideas for the hearts and minds of humankind between the Communist creed of collectivism and liberal idea of self-determination. It was a world struggle between the tyrannical Soviet system and the capitalist West. It was self-evident that that the philosophies of the former were dangerous; Less obvious was that to combat this evil system, many thought it necessary for the liberal West to compromise the very liberal idea it cherished. To put it another way, the liberal theory ingrained in the United States identity required American leaders to practice policies contrary to its nation’s founding theories. I call it the "liberty dilemma."
George Kennan attempted to ameliorate this unfortunate
conundrum. In “The Long
Telegram,” Kennan wrote that the “greatest danger that can befall us in
coping with this problem of Soviet communism, is that we shall allow ourselves
to become like those with whom we are coping.” Kennan attempted to outline a
policy guide that did not violate the philosophical outlook of the United
States. Kennan believed that the nation who does anything in the name of power
is but a nation who is complicit in tyranny. Kennan feared that the United
States would become the very monster it was attempting to destroy.

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