out entering upon a war, either hot or cold. In his dealings withrnthe Russians, he made Yalta a dead letter, and already in 1946rnhe was saying that the Germans ought to be put in charge ofrntheir own affairs. Because he was willing to deal with the Russiansrnwithout tipping his hand to either the President or hisrnsubordinates, Byrnes was often thought to be either an appeaserrnor a prima donna. George Kennan, who was irritatedrnwith the secretary’s aloofness in Moscow, began to think deeplyrnabout the proper American response to the Soviets. Both in hisrnfamous telegram and in his more famous “Mr. X” article. Kennanrnoutlined a strategy for containing Soviet aggression, arncombination of hard realism in dealing with the Soviets and arnrebirth of American idealism.rnUnfortunately, the effect of Kennan’s warnings was greaterrnthan he anticipated. Kennan’s hope was that the UnitedrnStates, in opposing communist aggression, would help to putrnthe European countries back on their feet, with the ultimaterngoal of making them independent of American military aid.rnWhat actually happened was the creation of the North AtlanticrnTreaty Organization.rnKennan was present at the working group sessions wherernNATO was born, but one member of the British team, SirrnNicholas Henderson (in his memoir The Birth of NATO), recalledrnKennan’s participation as largely negative and critical. Inrntheir zeal for world order, the American leadership pushedrnaside Kennan’s vision of a vigorous and independent Europe asrnantiquated. NATO’s court historian (Don Cook), concedingrnthat “Kennan had one of the best and most stimulating mindsrnever enlisted by the U.S. Foreign Service,” goes on to criticizernhis “nineteenth-century concept of the future of Europe—arnview, incidentally, that was shared by General Charles dernGaulle. It was to be a Europe standing on its own feet, sortingrnout its own affairs, its Iron Curtain divide gradually givingrnway to a Pan-European understanding, with America interveningrnonly from a distance to maintain peace and the balancernof power, the kind of role that England had played for two centuries.”rnBut other heads prevailed—the same heads that were declaringrnthe Constitution an outmoded document—and NATOrnwould become a collective security organization presided overrnby one dominant power with a virtual veto power. The Spartansrnhad called their own hegemony “Sparta and its Allies,” andrnit was in that sense that Britain and France entered into alliancernwith the United States. Kennan resigned from the Foreign Service,rnand the voice of pragmatism was stilled by impotence asrnsurely as the voices of isolation had been silenced by persecution.rnThe test came early, in the Suez Crisis of 1956. When thernFrench and the British attempted to respond in force to the closurernof the canal, they were sternly rebuked by the UnitedrnStates. The British were willing to accept their new role as veryrnjunior partners in an Anglo-American enterprise, but thernFrench—^being, after all, French—sulked and eventually withdrewrnfrom NATO. To this day, the French preserve more ofrntheir national dignity than Britain—look how M. Balladurrnbeat us down in the GATT talks—and for all their problems,rnthey continue to display a more robust sense of national identityrnthan most European nations.rnMusing Toward Grasmerernby Marion MontgomeryrnOutside, in the valley of the KentrnBelow Kendal, the insistent light comesrnSweeping, rolling green downhill more rapidlyrnThan the starting sheep can reckon.rnMoving,rnStopping under the willful clouds, white lambsrnCry the May air. Like orphaned drifts of mistrnThey plead the summer’s mercy and their mothers’.rnHigh in Two, White Cottage, Natland, I watchrnA fine rain soften the dry-stone wallsrnOn Natland Hall Farm.rnHere names magnify,rnA gift of anxious mind to the things in time’s clutch.rnHistory’s long hold on the steep mountains.rnThe green swells, the breath of suspirus earth,rnNatland Hall Farm.rnAcross the cobble roadrnMonks sang on damp mornings when the green camernEnriching Furness Abbey, their smoke risingrnTo praise God’s light for labor.rnOld daysrnRemembered, lichen and moss, stone-hinged fields.rnWhere May steadied the praise-full eye:rnStones greening, blossoming mist, song risingrnThrough the turning, the always turning years.rn14/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn