Final answer:
George Kennan was the U.S. diplomat who authored the Long Telegram in 1946, which outlined the containment policy, a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy aimed at preventing the expansion of Soviet influence during the Cold War.
Step-by-step explanation:
The author of the Long Telegram, which outlined the containment policy, was George Kennan, a U.S. diplomat stationed in Moscow. In February 1946, Kennan sent this impactful 8,000-word telegram to the U.S. Department of State, which played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War.
He characterized the Soviet Union as a totalitarian bureaucracy that was inherently expansionist and could not coexist peacefully with capitalist countries.
Kennan's advice was that the United States should implement a long-term strategy to contain Soviet influence to its existing borders, primarily through economic and political means, rather than military confrontation.
This approach aimed to prevent the expansion of Soviet power and ideology, on the belief that in time, the contained Communist system would collapse under its own weight.