I feel like I’m missing something here. US doing that would have made them much stronger against China. I mean just imagine how much more robust the European economy would be if all the gas going to China was going right to Europe.
Though in typing that out I may have answered my own question. Is it really just because US wanted to European market to themselves? This seems incredibly short sighted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_Ismay,_1st_Baron_Ismay
That idiom notwithstanding, I agree it’s odd that NATO still exists after Yeltsin was “elected.”
As others have pointed out, Soviet became Russian, American always wanted in, and NATO is definitely keeping Germany down