In May 1990 speech Secretary General Manfred Wörner said “The very fact that we are ready not to deploy NATO troops beyond the territory of the Federal Republic gives the Soviet Union firm security guarantees.”

This shows 2 things:

  1. As we already knew NATO had told the Soviet Union although that it would not move further East than East Germany
  2. They understood full well that NATO moving East was seen as threatening by USSR given the promise not to do so was a “security guarantee” for them.
  • knfrmityEnglish
    8·
    5 months ago

    All of the US officials and thought leaders in the international politics sphere at that time knew what NATO expansion would mean and knew what concerns USSR/Russia had, and at least publicly took them seriously. I’m not coming with the exact names now, but it was types like Kissinger, Rumsfeld, Mearsheimer, etc. There’s even a white paper from one of them, probably during the Clinton administration, discussing how a proposed expansion is playing with fire and should not be considered.

    The agreement at the time, which IIRC the West German chancellor confirmed, was that NATO would expand eastward in that the DDR would be taken over by the BRD, but beyond that the alliance would move no closer to Russia.