[Alberta's Child]

NATO was never designed to be an “alliance” in the traditional sense.

It was established to give the U.S. a mechanism for pacifying Western Europe; not to protect it from the Soviet Union.

[hinckley buzzard]

After VE Day the US was totally engaged in demobilization in Europe and sending troops either home or to the Pacific, depending on how many “points” they had accumulated. NATO was created at the urgent behest of western Europe, prostrate and facing a hundred divisions of the Red Amy at their Eastern doorstep. I doubt they wanted to pacify themselves.

[Right_Wing_Madman]

NATO was never designed to be an “alliance” in the traditional sense. It was established to give the U.S. a mechanism for pacifying Western Europe; not to protect it from the Soviet Union.

I'm not sure if this is true. I would need to see historical evidence claiming this was the intent. NATO's own 1949 charter states, "The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all." Most historians today agree that the U.S. and Western Europe formed NATO as a collective defense against the Soviet Union. However, Russia did somewhat appreciate NATO in the 1950s because it kept Germany disarmed.

Someone on this forum asked what would George Washington and John Adams do? They would probably wean Europe from U.S. military dependency and encourage Germany to rearm and take the lead in continental defense. I think at this point, Germany is the only country in Europe capable of containing Russia.