The Longer Telegram, despite a veneer of sophistication, has many flaws and lapses. To mention but two: late in life in the NYRB Kennan published a warning to Washington not to focus reductively on foreign leaders; second, as John Mearsheimer warned, the uneasy US-USSR equilibrium had certain positive effects. The same applies to the US-China equilibrium. When the US was left standing after the cold war marathon ended, Washington’s beltway savants opted for global dominance (the neocon Project for new American century), i.e. starting seven wars in the middle east, a project that has left Washington globally unfriended except for the Five Eyes (a racist term by the by). Think through what you wish for.