ABSTRACT
Thomas H. Etzold wrote, "George Frost Kennan, more than any others involved, shaped the centerpiece of politico-military coordination from 1947 to 1950, the strategy of containment". One might have thought that the president's words gave a hearty additional force to the developing American decision. The situation called for resolute action and this at a moment preceding Kennan's assumption of duties as director of the Policy Planning Staff (PPS) carrying out that decision. The "political", he understood, subsumed economic programs, which were even more acute. Kennan's PPS staff remained modest in size, numbering no more about ten at maximum but including members of distinguished ability. The PPS had been established almost three months before the National Security Council was formally created on July 26, 1947, as the master agency organizing security, relating it to military operations in general. On August 14, 1947, the paper PPS/6 emphasized the time factor, Kennan almost certainly writing it.
