Posted on 06/02/2025 6:47:17 PM PDT by AndyJackson
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early
Declassified documents show security assurances against NATO expansion to Soviet leaders from Baker, Bush, Genscher, Kohl, Gates, Mitterrand, Thatcher, Hurd, Major, and Woerner
U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s famous “not one inch eastward” assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, was part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev and other Soviet officials throughout the process of German unification in 1990 and on into 1991, according to declassified U.S., Soviet, German, British and French documents posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University
The documents show that multiple national leaders were considering and rejecting Central and Eastern European membership in NATO as of early 1990 and through 1991, that discussions of NATO in the context of German unification negotiations in 1990 were not at all narrowly limited to the status of East German territory, and that subsequent Soviet and Russian complaints about being misled about NATO expansion were founded in written contemporaneous memcons and telcons at the highest levels.
The documents reinforce former CIA Director Robert Gates’s criticism of “pressing ahead with expansion of NATO eastward [in the 1990s], when Gorbachev and others were led to believe that wouldn’t happen.”[1] The key phrase, buttressed by the documents, is “led to believe.”
President George H.W. Bush had assured Gorbachev during the Malta summit in December 1989 that the U.S. would not take advantage (“I have not jumped up and down on the Berlin Wall”) of the revolutions in Eastern Europe to harm Soviet interests; but neither Bush nor Gorbachev at that point (or for that matter, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl) expected so soon the collapse of East Germany or the speed of German unification.
The first concrete assurances by Western leaders on NATO began on January 31, 1990, when West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher opened the bidding with a major public speech at Tutzing, in Bavaria, on German unification. The U.S. Embassy in Bonn (see Document 1) informed Washington that Genscher made clear “that the changes in Eastern Europe and the German unification process must not lead to an ‘impairment of Soviet security interests.’ Therefore, NATO should rule out an ‘expansion of its territory towards the east, i.e. moving it closer to the Soviet borders.’” The Bonn cable also noted Genscher’s proposal to leave the East German territory out of NATO military structures even in a unified Germany in NATO.
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More follows the above excerpt
Did NATO Promise Not to Enlarge? Gorbachev Says “No”
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/did-nato-promise-not-to-enlarge-gorbachev-says-no/
There were “Assurances” from the Russians that when the Ukrainians gave up their Soviet nukes, their borders would be respected.
So much for “Assurances”.
The historical record of NATO eastwards expansion noted by British journalist Peter Hitchens who reported from Washington during the Clinton years.
1997 Bill Clinton decided on eastwards NATO expansion towards Russia.
Former US diplomat George Kennan author of the containment policy regarding the Soviet Union came out of retirement to speak out against this decision.
Kennan warned that poking Russia with this policy could lead to something bad.
The Russians assured us that they weren’t violating the treaties against chemical and biological weapons. Then literally tons of both were found when the Soviet Union collapsed.
So much for their assurances.
L
First of all no one demanded anything from you.
Second when did Russia agree not to attack Ukraine?
Oh that’s right Russia gets to launch actual wars when it feels like it.
All the apologies for Russia. They should even nuke people because Ukraine is defending itself.
Tiresome.
“There are constant demands on FR from Zeepers - prove that the US Committed to not expanding NATO eastwards. Well, here it is and the document contains links to declassified documents and briefing summaries on the subject.”
Pretty much DISCREDITS everything else the Zeepers claim about the war, but as long as they’re here, they’ll keep trying to GASLIGHT us as to their version of history (that Putin woke up one morning in 2022 and decided to invade Ukraine, for kicks).
Sickening, but we’re stuck with them.
“Assurances” to not expand NATO and “assurances” to ensure territorial integrity of Ukraine are just that, they are not treaties.
Other countries should assume our “assurances” are worthless until the Senate ratifies them as a treaty.
That agreement was with the USSR, not the Russian Federation, yet the Russians want to be the USSR when it is useful.
We are also told that the genocide carried out against Ukrainian people by Stalin was by the USSR, not the Russian Federation, so the Russian trolls say we can’t blame Russia...even though the Russians are still putting up memorials to the mass murderer Stalin, who was Georgian but is still Putin’s hero.
We also said we’d defend Ukraine if it turned over its nukes. It held up its end of the deal, then when that enabled Russia to invade, we reneged.
“Did NATO Promise Not to Enlarge? Gorbachev Says “No””
Thanks, but most here will trust the WRITTEN RECORD from the time, rather than what some Putin-hater (Gorbachev, in this case) claims to recall, 25 years later.
But those are just words on paper/s
Try your I made by bargain with the XYZ corporation not ABC corporate acquisition equities INC and have no intention of paying my overdue loan to them in a court of law.
Like the bargain was with the Soviet Union, not its heir and successor in title, Russia...
“There were “Assurances” from the Russians that when the Ukrainians gave up their Soviet nukes, their borders would be respected. So much for “Assurances”.
Well, if the agreements documented in this thread on NATO expansion had held, then Ukraine would still have Crimea, Donbass, and Odessa, as Russia’s number one justification for going into Ukraine was to prevent them from joining NATO.
“Like the bargain was with the Soviet Union, not its heir and successor in title, Russia...”
Yep, it is fun to watch the Zeepers grasping at straws, when they know, just as everyone here and the rest of the world (except media-controlled Europe), that NATO is about as aggressive as any military alliance in history.
Facts don’t matter to zeepers, given that they lack critical thinking skills.
In this way, they are reactionary in the tradition of liberalism.
It will never change.
Best laugh at them and enjoy the entertainment.
“There were “Assurances” from the Russians that when the Ukrainians gave up their Soviet nukes, their borders would be respected.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Indeed!
The Budapest Memorandum was crystal clear on that.
Russia signed it. But when Putin and his KGB Neosoviet brotherhood took over they violated everything. These people are violators. Never sign anything with those gangsters. And WHO are their best friends? Islamic Iran and Communist North Korea of course!
Putin: The Architect of NATO’s Expansion
Ironically, Vladimir Putin has done more to strengthen NATO than any Western leader in decades. Without his reckless aggression in Ukraine, the very idea of Sweden and Finland joining the alliance would have been unthinkable. These were historically neutral, staunchly anti-NATO nations — the last holdouts in a divided Europe.
And now? They stand as some of NATO’s most enthusiastic new members.
Congratulations, Mr. Putin. In trying to weaken Europe and the West, you’ve become NATO’s greatest recruiter.
Who knows.... maybe Putin is NATO agent.... :)
“Putin: The Architect of NATO’s Expansion”
No one even HEARD of Putin when Bill Clinton BROKE THE PROMISE and started the NATO expansion in 1997.
Try again, please.
The point that I wanted to make. It was more like that we were assuring the USSR at the time that NATO wouldn't expand into Eastern Europe.
If the USSR had survived the collapse of the Berlin Wall, then it's possible that NATO wouldn't have expanded beyond a unified Germany.
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