A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
TWO pieces of news, differing in importance according to the point of view. One is that PresidentTruman has definitely appointed Mr. George Kennan to be American Aniba-ssador at Moscow and that the Soviet Government have agreed to the appointn*nt. Mr. Kennan attained fame, or as some would say notoriety, some three years ago when, although a State Department official, he wrote in the well-known quarterly Foreign Affairs an article outlining a policy of " containment ' in relation to Russia—a determination to check Russian aggres- sion wherever it was manifested, and wait patiently till various internal movements, including the ultimate death of Stalin, brought the present Communist regime to the ground. That, on the whole, is the policy at present being followed. But for every American who has heard of Mr. George Kennan, there – must be thousands, most of them under twelve, to whom Hop- along Cassidy is almost more familiar than their own fathers. For Hopalong Cassidy is the man who, a virtual failure at Holly- wood, suddenly revived some old outworn -Wild West films, put them on television and made himself the best-known man in the United States, Harry S. Truman and Dwight L. Eisenhower not excepted. Now Hopalong Cassisly, it is stated, is selling out his rights for the equivalent of L2850,000. Enough to retire on.
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