Books: History's Lost Opportunity

THE DECISION TO INTERVENE (513 pp.)

—George F. Kennan—Princeton University Press ($7.50).

The strangling of Bolshevism at its birth would have been an untold blessing to the human race.

—Winston Churchill, 1949

In Russia Leaves the War, the first of a three-volume study-in-progress of Soviet-American relations (1917-20), scholarly ex-Diplomat George F. Kennan described the birth of Bolshevism in Russia. Volume II, The Decision to Intervene, tells the fascinating story of how the Allies irresolutely attempted to strangle the newborn Red monster.

Scarcely a single, clear-cut, concerted decision was taken by the leading Allies (Britain, France,...