Editing X Article (section)

===Walter Lippmann's critique===
Political commentator [[Walter Lippmann]] responded to the article,{{sfn|Gaddis|2005a|p=25}} published in the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' across fourteen different columns, the first which appeared on September 2, 1947.{{sfn|Gaddis|2011|p=273}} Lippmann's analysis was widely read and collected in his 1947 book, ''The Cold War''.{{sfn|Gaddis|2011|p=273}}{{refn|group=note|Lippmann's book was one of the first times that the term "[[Cold war (term)|cold war]]" was applied to the [[Cold War|geopolitical conflict]].{{sfn|Gaddis|2011|p=273}} Refer to {{harvnb|Lippmann|1947}}.}} Lippmann critiqued the article as having presented a "strategic monstrosity", providing the Soviets with the initiative in any conflict, resulting in the United States depending on "a coalition of disorganized, disunited, feeble or disorderly nations, tribes and factions."{{sfn|Gaddis|2011|p=273}}

Lippmann incorrectly concluded that Kennan's article had inspired the Truman Doctrine, which Lippmann opposed.{{sfn|Gaddis|2011|pp=273–274}} Kennan's article was completed in late January 1947 and Truman announced his Doctrine in a March 12, 1947 speech. Despite this chronology, Gaddis writes: "there is no evidence that it influenced the drafting of that address and abundant evidence that Kennan had sought to remove the language in it to which Lippmann later objected."{{sfn|Gaddis|2011|p=273}} For Lippmann, however, the piece was "not only an analytical interpretation of the sources of Soviet conduct. It is also a document of primary importance on the sources of American foreign policy – of at least that part of it which is known as the Truman Doctrine."{{sfn|Gaddis|2011|p=273}}

Because of the rushed nature in which Kennan had written the article, he regretted some views expressed within and agreed with some of Lippmann's critiques.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005a|p=25}} Though Kennan did not send the final draft of the piece until 11 April – a month after the announcement of the Truman Doctrine – he did not revise it, despite having disagreements with sections of the Doctrine.{{sfn|Gaddis|2011|pp=273–274}} Kennan's position in the State Department made him hesitant to offer any public clarification,{{sfn|Gaddis|2011|p=275}} and he would not respond until the publication of the first volume of his memoirs in 1967.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005a|p=25}}