The Growth of American Power Through Cold and Hot Wars 303Nazis, was basically now dead because of their differences over the future of
Germany.
Not only were the U.S. and Soviets now in conflict over the fate of Eastern
Europe, but the Cold War was spreading. In early 1946, one of America’s most
famous diplomats, George Frost Kennan, wrote the “long telegram,” a detailed
analysis of U.S. policy toward the Russians, and recommended a policy of
containment. Containment assumes that one cannot totally eliminate a prob-
lem, so it must contain, or limit, it to where it already exists, like a quarantine
in a hospital if a disease breaks out. In the context of that time, Kennan
FIGuRE 6-4 Map of Germany in 1945