Let’s first review some of the aspects of the new world order that was created following WW II. We discovered that FDR had begun planning what this new order would be in the summer of 1941 – prior to the US ever entering the war. Key aspects included:
- That the US would need to help nations rebuild after the war so that they could be good trading partners and would be able to become stable democracies.
- Free trade – minimizing tariffs and trade barriers so that nations lacking vital resources would not have to resort to war to get them (e.g. Japan and Germany.)
- Having a permanent organization where the nations of the world could meet and discuss differences and, unlike the League of Nations, the United States needed to be a key player. Ergo, the United Nations needed to be located in the US with the US as its principal underwriter. This body would emphasize diplomacy to resolve differences and would have the authority to decide when war was justified,
In my previous essay, I noted that had the US limited its wars only to those determined by the UN Security Council to be “legal”, the US and the world would probably be better off.
NATO was not part of FDR’s vision. NATO was created to check the Soviet Union. Let’s do a little history on the USSR. It was created on Dec 29, 1922 and included six states – Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. By 1925, the territory of what would become six more states in Central Asia were added (mostly “stans”). In 1939, Stalin annexed by force the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) bringing the total to 15 republics in the USSR. The Soviet Union suffered terribly in WWII (over 26 million deaths). Following WWII, Stalin kept Soviet forces in Eastern Europe and essentially conquered five nations (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungry, Romania and Bulgaria plus East Germany.) They became members of the Warsaw Pact and were satellite states with puppet governments answerable to Moscow. Oh, and at the beginning of WWII, Stalin had invaded but not conquered Finland. How to stop the USSR from absorbing Scandinavia, West Germany and other European countries?
NATO was formed in 1949 for that purpose. There were 12 founding members which included the US, France and the UK, but not West Germany. Germany, Greece and Turkey were added by 1955. So, there were 15 NATO nations that held the USSR in check during the height of the Cold War (though one, France, was a flake during this period.) The key provision of NATO’s charter was that an attack on one nation was an attack on all.
NATO created a unified command whereby the military forces of all members could operate in concert. The military head of NATO is the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) who has always been a US military officer. This is as it should be since the US is the only nation with the strategic assets to control all aspects of a military operation and was the indispensable leader of NATO.
In the late 1970’s when I served as a naval officer mainly in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, most of our war exercises were with NATO. The enemy forces we trained to fight were always those of the Russian led Soviet Union.
NATO worked. No additional nations were absorbed by the Soviet Union ,though Cuba became a close ally under Castro. in 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved without a shot being fired between the two forces. This success created the biggest challenge to NATO – without having a Russian led Soviet Union to oppose, why continue with NATO?
In December 1992, NATO began an involvement in the region of former Yugoslavia, the “Yugoslav War”. Yugoslavia, which had been created after WW II was a mismatch of six former republics of many different ethnic groups. (It would ultimately become 7 different nations.) Though neither a Soviet republic nor a member of the Warsaw Pact, Yugoslavia was a communist country that was under the influence of Moscow. Its independence was due to it being ruled by a wily strongman, Josip Tito, for 35 years. When he died in 1980, it created instability. When the Soviet Union began unraveling in the late 1980’s, some of the former republics sought to break away and become independent nations.
Serbia, the largest of the republics, and an ancient ally of Russia, sought to take control of all regions with ethnic Serbs. War ensued and ultimately 140,000 people would be killed – many through ethnic cleansing. It was a horrible situation right in Europe. However, the UN Security Council with the Soviet Union/Russia having a veto, would not authorize military involvement and nothing in NATO’s charter allowed it to intervene – no member state was being attacked. And yet, NATO did choose to get involved to stop the killing. It was a decision that would do great damage to the future relations between Russia and the NATO countries.
Exceeded word limit – will continue with another essay.