American Notes IDEAS

Except in rarefied intellectual circles, articles that appear in the Cambridge, Mass., journal Daedalus (circ. 14,000) seldom stir up much of a fuss. But a pseudonymous piece appearing in the quarterly's winter issue is kicking up a storm. Titled "To the Stalin Mausoleum," the pessimistic assessment of the Soviet Union's ability to transform itself both economically and politically is obviously modeled after George Kennan's famous 1947 Foreign Affairs essay, in which Kennan outlined the concept of containment of the Soviet Union. While Kennan wrote under the byline "X," the Daedalus author identified himself -- or herself -- only as "Z."

After the New York Times excerpted the article last week, Washington was abuzz with speculation about the author's identity. Could it be Robert Gates, deputy director of the National Security Council, whose hard-line views on the Soviets upset Bush Administration moderates? (Gates said no.) Or Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's tough-talking National Security Adviser? Others pointed to the piece's stilted, formal prose as persuasive evidence that the author is most likely a foreigner, possibly a Russian. The editors at Daedalus weren't talking. Neither was Z.