William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum
Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton during a press connection after the Hyde Park summit in 1995 in the USA
German government documents from the 1990s now disqualified show that the US, under the presidency of Bill Clinton, seriously considered Russia to join NATO. Strong opposition from European allies, especially Germany, prevented the plan from advancing.
In the early 1990s, Russia was a step towards joining NATO, revealed recently disqualified secret documents to which it had access to it.
According to the German newspaper, the issue was discussed in a summit at the White House in September 1994, among the then presidents Bill Clinton e Boris Yeltsin.
At the time, the documents reveal, Clinton will have assured Yeltsin that the widening of the swimming to be assisted was intended for Inclusion, not to exclusion.
“Please, note that I never said that we should not consider Russia For adhesion, ”Clinton told Yeltsin, who answered that he understood and thanked the US President.
At the time, the born Prepared his first widening place to east. Poland, Chéquia and Hungary joined in 1999, followed by other former members of the Warsaw Pact. Russia, however, remained out and its relationship with the alliance has been deteriorating over the following years.
Nexo / NATO
NATO expansion map / European countries: founding members, east expansion (so -called “iron curtain” countries), adhesion of Sweden and Finland after the Russian invasion of Ukraine
According to telegrams and memorandum of German diplomacy analyzed by DER SPIEGEL, in 1994 The Clinton Administration presented the Russian membership like a official US position.
American guardians, including the then Under-Secretary of State of the US Strobe TalbottNATO members reported on the idea, and even suggested that the Adhesion negotiations could start around 2004.
The perspective of a born to extend “from St. Francis to Vladivostoch” would create an alliance that would control Almost all world nuclear arsenalwith China as the only great exception – and would create the Largest Military Alliance in history of humanity.
But Bill Clinton’s plan found A lot of resistance in Washingtonand it was Liminally rejected in Europe.
In internal discussions, the then Chancellor Helmut Kohl argued that admitting Russia would weaken the NATO as a collective defense organization.
Bona diplomats warned that the members of the alliance could one day be called to defend the long borders of Russia with China and Mongolia – a scenario considered Irrealist and dangerous. Defense Minister Volker Rühe classified the idea as the NATO’s “death certificate”.
The documents reveal that the German politicians responsible believed that Even a democratic Russia could never be a credible member of the alliance.
A classified message, sent to several embassies in late 1994, instructed the German diplomats to Discreetly inform Russiasuch as Ukraine and Belarus, that NATO membership was not an option. Such statements should be avoided in public to preserve relations with Moscow.
Within the US government itself, Clinton faced skepticism. German diplomats who gathered with high pentagon, CIA and the State Department reported that many were surprised by Clinton to support the idea, which they considered Irrealist and destabilizing.
O political climate in Washington increased the pressure. Republicans accused Clinton of being too mild with Russia And they defended a rapid expansion of NATO to reassure the states of Central and East Europe. After important victories of the Republicans in the 1994 interchange elections, the White House accelerated the widening process.
By the end of 1994, the Russian officials already expressly expressed their indignation with NATO plans.
The then Russian diplomat Yuri ushakov – the same one that currently represents Vladimir Putin in negotiations for a peace agreement in Ukraine – described the expansion of the alliance as “a kind of betrayal”.
Moscow’s guardians believed that the leaders of Western countries had implicitly promised not to advance to east when the Soviet Union accepted the German reunificationem 1990.
Although Yeltsin initially had the hypothesis that Russia joined NATO, and then -foreign minister, Andrei Kozyrevseeking greater integration with western institutions, The idea was practically abandoned em 1995.
Distance view, Clinton’s idea seems to have been a genuine attempt to reconcile the Russians with the imminent adhesion of Poland and other east countries to the Atlantic Alliance – a attempt that eventually failedconcludes DER SPIEGEL.
