George F. Kennan helped set U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War and won a Pulitzer Prize. He also purchased a farm in eastern Adams County and was known to many folks in the East Berlin, Pa., area. Also of interest: Hanover's Cold Warrior J.W. Gitt's mansion: 'You can look down and see the town laid down before you' and York still twinning with France, Germany after 50-plus years and Cuban expert and York editor Jim Higgins: 'He was just another journalist ... with opinions'.

The late "Green Acres" actor and World War II war hero Eddie Albert wasn't the only celebrity with East Berlin ties.

Historian George F. Kennan served the Allied cause in World War II as a diplomat in European capitals.

He was winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Twice.

He promoted the policy of containment to prevent the spread of communism via the "domino effect." Some believe that policy led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War in 1989.

He's the topic of a popular book "The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War".

And he also owned a farm in the East Berlin area of Adams County... .

The New York Times Book Review assessed "The Hawk and the Dove." To visit, click here.

Like fellow Adams countian, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Kennan was often seen attending Adams County community activities.

One wonders if they ever met at, say, the general store in Biglerville.

In Kennan's obituary story on March 21, 2005, the York Daily Record/Sunday News, with an assist from the Associated Press, linked the "Father of Containment" to this region.

Excerpts follow:

Although Keith Baker was only in his early twenties at the time, George F. Kennan left a big impression on him when they first met in the 1960s.

"He was a very dignified person, but he was still down-to-earth and he would talk to anybody," said Baker, now president of the Liberty Fire Company in East Berlin.

Baker said Kennan -- a diplomat, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and former Adams County resident -- would stop by carnivals held by the fire department if he was in the area.

Kennan died Thursday night at his home in Princeton, N.J. He was 101.

Kennan was a member of the U.S. foreign service from 1927 until 1953, during much of which time he served in Germany and Eastern Europe.

After World War II, he was one of the chief formulators of U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union. In "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," an article written under the pseudonym "X" for the journal Foreign Affairs in 1947, he laid out the rationale for the policy of containment, the bedrock of U.S. actions throughout the Cold War.

Kennan also had ties to Adams County.

In 1942, Kennan and his wife, Annelise, purchased a farm of about 225 acres in Reading Township, west of East Berlin, according to a Web site maintained by the Adams County Bicentennial Committee.

Although the Kennans sold the farm to their daughter in 1975, they returned occasionally to Adams County.

"I knew him to see him and talk to him when he was around the fire company," Baker said Friday. "He just had a way about him that he was easy to talk to."

Four decades ago, Kennan donated some money to the Liberty Fire Company when it was soliciting funds to purchase a $25,756 truck, Baker said.

"It was one of the largest donations for the truck," he said.

And at a special meeting held in April of 1961, the fire company named the new engine the "Ambassador Kennan."

The engine bearing his name has since been replaced and sold, but Liberty Fire Company still has access to the engine for use in parades, Baker said.

Kennan was incorporated into history lessons by Dr. Charles H. Glatfelter, a professor at Gettysburg College from 1949 to 1989.

"I was aware of the stands he took and some of those stands were difficult because the stands he took meant we had to expect results in the long-term," Glatfelter said.

One such stand was containment -- the word Kennan used in the "X article" in Foreign Affairs. Kennan wrote that "any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies."

Glatfelter had several encounters with Kennan, one of them at the Adams County Historical Society, where Glatfelter was director from 1959 to 2001.

Kennan came to the historical society one day because he wanted to see a photograph of a Lutheran pastor who lived in East Berlin for many years.

"Here was this man who had written about foreign affairs, who had been in diplomatic affairs for years and could have acted as though he was the lord of the manor, but he seemed to be most appreciative of any help I could give him," Glatfelter said.

Kennan photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

A York (Pa.) Daily Record photographer captured the late actor Eddie Albert - Oliver Wendell Douglas in the 1960s sitcom 'Green Acres' - in East Berlin, Pa., in 1997. Albert received a Bronze Star in that eastern Adams County town for his heroics in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Also of interest: Nazis murdered downed WWII airman from York and York County sacrificed on homefront and war front to aid Allies in World War II and War memorials stand proudly in towns throughout York County.

York Daily Record/Sunday News writer Jeff Frantz has told a touching story about York's Robert Kressler, who was killed in France in combat in World War II.

For years, his sister, Jeanne Stefanowicz, 82, of York, did not know how he was killed.

He wrote how the Purple Heart Hall of Honor in New York answered that question. (Please read this excellent story The death of Pfc. Kressler: A call, and an answer to find out the details.)

This post, looking ahead to Veterans Day, is about another hero - a high-profile hero - who fought in the Pacific Theater. He held a local link in East Berlin.

That hero was the late Eddie Albert, aka Oliver Wendell Douglas, TV husband of Eva Gabor and foil of Arnold the Pig... .

The short story is that he came to East Berlin twice in 1997 to be feted for saving 79 fighting men in the Battle of Tarawa.

Yes, the gentleman farmer of TV fame was one tough fighting man.

Excerpts from the York Daily Record (11/11/1997) story on Albert's link to East Berlin follow:

"Battle of Tarawa," starring Eddie Albert: In this thrilling action-adventure, legendary actor Eddie Albert plays a recently enlisted Navy sailor sent to defend his country during World War II. He is a lieutenant junior grade, a reserve sailor fresh out of boot camp.

As the action unfolds, Albert's ship, the U.S.S. Sheridan, circles a coral atoll in the South Pacific. It is a November day in 1943. It is Albert's first invasion. Marines swarm the waters off the coast of the Gilbert Islands, wading toward the beaches under heavy Japanese fire. Hundreds are dead and wounded.

At first, Albert watches in horror. Then, in a daring move, he commandeers a small boat and sets out to rescue the wounded. He throws one leg and his torso over the side of the boat and plucks soldiers from the water. When he has rescued six or seven, and his boat is full, he returns to the U.S.S. Sheridan to drop them off. Then he goes out and collects more of the wounded, dodging bullets all the while. That day, 1,056 American men are killed. Albert rescues 79.

Eddie Albert may star in this story of heroism, but this is no Hollywood production. The 89-year-old actor, best known for his role in the television series "Green Acres," will receive a combat award today, 53 years after his heroics at the Battle of Tarawa. He didn't ask for the honor. The request came from a Thomasville resident who witnessed the rescues from his perch on a Navy destroyer.

George F. Thomas, commander of the East Berlin Veterans of Foreign Wars post, spent three years persuading the Navy to review Albert's actions. U.S. Rep. Bill Goodling, R-York County, lent his weight to the effort, and last month, the Navy awarded Albert the Bronze Star, marked "V" for valor in combat.

"We thought he was crazy," Thomas, 76, said of Albert. "We just saw this guy and couldn't believe how he was getting away with it and not being killed." Thomas watched in amazement that November day, peering through binoculars at the daredevil rescuer.

He didn't know who the hero was. A few years ago, Thomas met a veteran who had a photograph of himself and Albert taken at a Marine Corps reunion. "What are you doing with Eddie Albert?" Thomas asked. The man answered: "He's the one who got us out of the water."

Thomas took it from there. He dug up a list of the soldiers stationed on his ship and the wounded men who had been treated there. He searched through records at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., to track the men down. He called Albert at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., and the two became friends.

Earlier this year, Albert visited York County for the 50th anniversary of the East Berlin VFW. For Albert's second visit, Tarawa veterans have come from as far away as Illinois and Oklahoma. Retired Marine Dean Snyder drove from Streator, Ill., to honor the man who saved him from drowning. Albert explains his actions with dollops of understatement and humor.

"Well, I thought, "Somebody ought to help them out. They're going to drown in this water.' I was highly indignant," Albert said. Snyder, who was shot in the belly, remembers how Albert strolled through the hospital ship, singing and playing guitar for the wounded men.

Albert has a modest explanation for that, too. "I did that so I wouldn't have to work."

When Albert died in 2005, local folks remembered his 1997 visits.

VFW member Paul Kopp recalled members of the American Legion surprising Albert by singing the "Green Acres" theme.

"He got up and he was a-wavin' and a-singin'," Kopp said.