George Frost Kennan

Kennan was an american diplomat, and at the time he wrote The Sources of Soviet Conduct, he was the director of the Policy Planning Staff of the Department of State.  He wrote the article anonymously at the time because he was to become the diplomat to Russia and seeing his viewpoint, it was to his and the U.S.'s interest not to publish it under his name.  It was thus published under the name "X."  He began his diplomatic career in Hamburg, Germany in 1927 and had four tours of duty in the Soviet Union, including being the U.S. ambassador in 1952.  He retired from foreign service in 1953, but was brought out of retirement by President John F. Kennedy.  He has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his writings on Soviet-American relations.

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