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> no one forsaw the retrograde in the relationship That's plainly not true. George Kennan did. "I think it is the beginning of a new cold war," said Mr. Kenna
by thriftwy 9y ago
> no one forsaw the retrograde in the relationship
That's plainly not true. George Kennan did.
"I think it is the beginning of a new cold war," said Mr. Kennan from his Princeton home. "I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the Founding Fathers of this country turn over in their graves. We have signed up to protect a whole series of countries, even though we have neither the resources nor the intention to do so in any serious way. [NATO expansion] was simply a light-hearted action by a Senate that has no real interest in foreign affairs."
"What bothers me is how superficial and ill informed the whole Senate debate was," added Mr. Kennan, who was present at the creation of NATO and whose anonymous 1947 article in the journal Foreign Affairs, signed "X," defined America’s cold-war containment policy for 40 years. "I was particularly bothered by the references to Russia as a country dying to attack Western Europe. Don’t people understand? Our differences in the cold war were with the Soviet Communist regime. And now we are turning our backs on the very people who mounted the greatest bloodless revolution in history to remove that Soviet regime.
- tome 9y ago> And now we are turning our backs on the very people who mounted the greatest bloodless revolution in history to remove that Soviet regime. Those "very people" are not the same as those currently in power. The latter are presumably, in one way or another, the ones propagating this particular reading of history.
- DubiousPusher 9y agoGood point. I guess it should have read 'few forsaw the retrograde in the relationship.' What I mean was that, I think a lot of folks saw the Russian's international ambitions as dwindling massively after the fall of the Soviet Union and that they'd focus on improving their domestic situation. I think most of us expected something akin to the decolonization that took place after WWII, which vastly dimished the power of old European powers.
- thriftwy 9y agoYeah, and instead we've got huge Empire of Europe which left Russia behind. And more assertive USA than ever.
- slededit 9y agoYour quote is the exception that proves the rule. He speaks of nobody seeing how this would damage the relationship.
- Giorgi 9y agoFirst of all, removing Soviet regime was not bloodless, that's a bullshit. Second - Soviet communist regime did not evaporate, these people were still ruling Russia and still are.
- thriftwy 9y ago> removing Soviet regime was not bloodless, that's a bullshit Can you elaborate? > Soviet communist regime did not evaporate, these people were still ruling Russia and still are That's because everybody who was more pro-West got negative reinforcement of every their action and got selected out of politician population. Basically, each time Russia tried to play friendly, something was gladly taken from it with no compensation.
- valuearb 9y agoApparently George Kennan didn't foresee how expansionist Russia would become, Crimea and the Ukraine being only two examples. I for one am very happy that NATO expansion ensures it has more divisions than Russia, vs. being out-numbered more than 2-1 during the USSR days. What-ever craven fool promised the Russians that NATO would stand aside and let it do whatever it wanted to former USSR countries was an idiot, and their promises were never binding on free peoples.