But it's also the case that the west is straddling strategies here. Either do as Kennan says and just leave NATO the way it was and don't poke the wounded bear, or actually encircle Russia completely, stick nukes in their back yard and show them who is boss.
Don't pretend to do both and neither, that is the worst of all worlds.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/opinion/putin-ukraine-nat...
It's actually exactly the opposite and the guy who wrote the book on containment called it a tragedy. We don't need to rewrite history.