What was the long telegram? We went over it in my class today but I didn't get all the notes down. I think my professor said that said one thing but people changed it around a little to make it worse than what it was and to get people to dislike the russians even more?
The Long Telegram was, and I'm giving you the short version, George Kennan's response to a I believe Treasury Dept. request for opinion on why the Soviet's weren't supporting U.S. post war economic measures. Despite the view among revisionist historians that Kennan's arguments were novel or game changing, most historians now agree that Kennan in both the Long Telegram and X Article effectively distilled and condensed a rather common feeling among "State" officials. While not really novel, Kennan did communicate a fairly concise framework and opinion which was able to create a lens through which Soviet actions were viewed. One should note that he never fully or adequately defined what he meant by "containment."