The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan ['25], and the History of the Cold War

(Henry Holt). In this dual biography of the two master architects of America’s Cold War strategy, the author explores the men’s lives, their opposing strategies for winning, and their 60-year friendship. Nitze, the “hawk,” believed the best way to avoid a nuclear war was to prepare to win one. Kennan, the “dove,” argued that the United States should contain the Soviet Union while waiting for it to collapse from within. An editor at Wired magazine, Thompson is a grandson of Nitze.