At a Century's Ending: Reflections, 1982-1995

In one of the best pieces in this miscellany of essays, speeches, lectures and reviews, Kennan sketches a series of vivid autobiographical flashbacks: living in a wooden cottage with his wife in independent Latvia in 1932 and in Moscow in 1937, at the height of Stalin's purges; his banishment from the Soviet Union by Stalin in 1952, ending his Foreign Service career. In another provocative article, he dismisses as ""intrinsically silly and childish"" the claim that the Reagan administration decisively influenced the breakup of the U.S.S.R., thereby winning the Cold War. Drawing on six decades of experience as ambassador to Moscow and as State Department policy maker, Kennan offers a magisterial overview of our tragic century, marked by two world wars and a Cold War that in his opinion has led the U.S. into a wasteful, draining military buildup. Several selections comprise a running commentary on the breakup of the Soviet Union; there's also a comparison of the recent Balkan war with the Balkan fracas of 1913. Analyzing Russia's current relations with new surrounding states, Kennan concludes that fears in the West that Russia is imperialistic and aggressive are unwarranted. History Book Club and BOMC selections. (Mar.)