The Long Entanglement: The United States and NATO After Fifty Years

The fiftieth anniversary of the long entanglement between the United States and NATO is an appropriate occasion to reflect. One of the few NATO studies to concentrate on the history of the alliance, particularly the relationship between its senior partner and its European allies, this study examines critical issues in depth, to uncover the ability of the allies to surmount their internal divisions and to confront their Soviet adversary. While NATO archives are still not fully open, the use of declassified documents from the National Archives and the presidential libraries are of invaluable assistance in considering the historical role of America in the alliance, and the continuing relevance of the organization in U.S. foreign policy. The twelve chapters of this book, provide analyses of important issues in the organization's history, and are connected by brief contexual narratives. The resulting picture depicts a fifty-year history in which the difficulties in arriving at a consensus among the fifteen allies, each understandably concerned with its own national interests, rival those of the alliance in dealing with the Communist threat. The implosion of the Soviet empire in the early 1990s left the organization in search of new reasons for its own existence. While centrifugal forces are arguably greater today than they were during the Cold War, none of the allies seeks to terminate this long entanglement. Contents 5 Preface and Acknowledgments 7 I. Origins of the Alliance, 1948-1949 13 1. An Unequal Triad: The United States, the Western Union, and NATO 19 NOTES 34 2. The "Atlantic" Component of NATO 41 3. The Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949 49 NOTES 66 Il. NATO in the First Generation, 1950-1967 71 4. The Impact of Sputnik on NATO 77 NOTES 86 5. The Berlin Crisis, 1958-1962: Views from the Pentagon 89 NOTES 105 6. Les débats stratégiques 111 NOTES 123 Ill. NATO in the Second Generation, 1968-1989 127 7. The U.S. and NATO in the Johnson Years 133 NOTES 154 8. NATO and the Nixon Doctrine: Ten Years Later 161 NOTES 173 9. The INF Treaty and the Future of NATO: Lessons from the 1960s 177 NOTES 193 IV. NATO in the Third Generation, from 1991 195 10. NATO after the Cold War 197 NOTES 212 11. NATO at Fifty 215 NOTES 231 12. NATO: A Counterfactual History 233 Appendix: The North Atlantic Treaty, Washington, D.C., April 4,1949 251 NOTES 253 Bibliographical Essay 255 Index 259 Concentrates on the long entanglement between the United States and NATO, elaborating on the ability of the allies to surmount their internal divisions and to confront their Soviet adversary.