Message from Charles Aulds

I just read:

Putin: His Life and Times, by Philip Short (2022)

This book was a long read for me; I tried to cross-reference as much of the material as I could with other sources. I was surprised to learn that it was US President Clinton who reversed a long-standing policy of the United States NOT to expand NATO to the east. Clinton's predecessor, George H. W. Bush (the first President Bush) was at odds with the Pentagon over that policy. Bush's Defense Secretary, Dick Cheney, and Cheney's Under Secretary Paul Wolfowitz both felt that Russia needed to be punished (and its wealth stolen) while it was in a state of crisis after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

They had a problem, though. James Baker, who served as US Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush (the first Bush), had promised Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 that NATO would expand "not one inch eastward" into Russia's sphere of influence. That promise was made on the condition that Russia would not oppose the reunification of West and East Germany. The Russians honored that promise. The Americans broke their promise almost immediately, because President Clinton's advisors thought that the Russians, having lost the cold war, had to "eat their spinach".

Quoted: "Even at the height of the Cold War, in the 1970s and early 1980s, France and Germany had doubts about America’s willingness to come to their defence in the event of a Soviet invasion if doing so would entail an all-out nuclear conflict. From a European standpoint, such fears were well founded. The United States did not enter World War I until 1917, when it was already clear that Germany was losing, and remained aloof from World War II until it had itself been attacked in December 1941. There was no reason to think that in a new conflict, America would behave any differently."

Europe did NOT, at that time, feel that provoking Russia by offering security guarantees to former Soviet Union states was a smart thing to do ... they did not feel they could depend on the US to back up those promises if Russia was provoked into an armed response.

Russia, for its part, sought better relations with the West, both political and economic, and sought to be a bridge between Asia and Europe. Russia wanted to remain within its traditional borders, with a strong central government that would restrain those "breakaway states" (like Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine).

In the mid-Nineties, even Putin, who was not yet President, was willing to accept membership in the European Community for the the eastern and central countries, but considered NATO membership a step too far ... because NATO was 1) a military alliance that was 2) under the control of the US, which was, 3) dedicated to the destruction of Russia.

The entire world (particularly the European Union) is learning, now, what Russia has known for decades: the United States cannot be trusted. You and I knew it, though. Right?

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Charles