ABSTRACT
After many decades of unrequited yearning for Russia, George F. Kennan fi nally reaped his reward. At a December 1987 reception held in the Soviet embassy in Washington, Mikhail Gorbachev, spying the former diplomat in the crowd, threw his arms around him. The elderly man recounted the rare moment of satisfaction: “Still holding on to my elbows, [Gorbachev] looked me seriously in the eye and said: ‘Mr. Kennan. We in our country believe that a man may be a friend of another country and remain, at the same time, a loyal and devoted citizen of his own; and that is the way we view you.” 1 Kennan was deeply moved by this literal and fi gurative embrace.
