(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
From the first moment, US post-war policy was aimed at securing a foothold against the Soviet Union, and NATO has always been a tool of power in the United States' worldwide military, political and economic strategy. David Horowitz has in the book "United States and the Cold War" provided a corrective to the official Western history writing, and it may be helpful in today's current debate to recall some key points.
The first steps were taken as early as the end of the war in 1945, when the United States, Soviet Union and Storbritannia were partners in a war alliance. The collaboration between Stalin and President Roosevelt during the war had been good after the circumstances, but the relationship between the two great powers changed after President Truman succeeded Roosevelt at his death in April 1945, shortly before the end of the war. Early in the year 1945, the Allies at a meeting in Yalta had agreed on military dispositions in Europe after the war. The US war with Japan was not yet over, but as agreed during the Yalta meeting, a major invasion was set to begin in November. The Soviet was to declare Japan war, and the declaration was to be issued on August 8, after the Soviet had moved a significant army force from Europe to open the second front against Japan.
But on August 6, 1945 – two days before the Soviet declaration of war – the United States used its new weapons atomic bomb towards the Japanese city Hiroshima, and two days later towards the city Nagasaki. The Soviet was not notified of this, and the use of the nuclear bomb was considered, not only as an effective remedy against an enemy who had already made a request for peace, but as a demonstration of the United States military force with address to the Soviet Union. It is no wonder that the United States' action came to exacerbate the US-Russian relationship significantly.
"Securing the World for the United States"
At the end of the war, the Soviet Union was strongly war-torn. The country had lost 20 million people and half of its material wealth. US military and economic superiority dictated the country's policies under President Truman, who just after he was elected president argued that the Russians should be put in place and that the United States should take the lead and rule the world as it should be governed. The US Secretary of State said in the same direction: "Our job now is not to secure the world for democracy, but to secure the world for the United States." And the Secretary of Defense wrote in 1947: "As long as we produce more than any other country in the world, the seas control and can hit the mainland with the nuclear bomb we can take risks that would otherwise not be acceptable to restore world trade, the military balance in Europe and remove some of the causes that cause war. We have great chances for a few years as long as no other power has the ability to attack us with weapons of mass destruction. "
In the first years after the war, the United States established bases around the entire Soviet Union, tried new nuclear bombs and continued production of long-range aircraft. Votes were raised in the United States against this policy. Trade Henry wallace wrote to President Truman: "I can see nothing but that these actions lead the rest of the world to believe we are just talking empty words about peace at the negotiating table… How would we take it if the Soviet Union had the atomic bomb and not us, if the Soviet Union had long-range bombers and bases less than 1600 km from our coast and not us? » asked Wallace.
Truman Doctrine
In March 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his sensational speech in Fulton, calling for an alliance between Britain and the United States against the Soviet Union. In 1947, the "Truman Doctrine" was launched as official policy. The goal was to prevent Soviet expansion politically, economically and militarily. Walter Lippman warned against the doctrine that heralded the global containment policy. He pointed out that the United States did not have enough military personnel to encircle the Soviet Union. The doctrine could thus only be implemented indirectly, that is, by recruiting, subsidizing and supporting a mixed company of satellites, clients, dependent countries and nod dolls… in the vicinity of the Soviet Union, Walter Lippman believed, and he foresaw the rearmament of Germany as a result of the containment policy.
According to President Tito, it was only after the "Truman Doctrine" in 1947 that Stalin decided to close Eastern Europe for good. One of the reasons was to facilitate the military defense of the Soviet Union. "The Russian military strategists, of course, paid close attention to the talk of a preventive war, the building of bases and the concentration of long-range bombers, and they feared an American attack with nuclear bombs," writes David Horowitz.
NATO offer in 1948
In order to carry out the intentions of the Fulton speech and the Truman doctrine, worldwide military cooperation was necessary. The United States, therefore, took the initiative to establish military pacts for the Atlantic and the Pacific. In the fall of 1948 and the spring of 1949, negotiations were underway in Washington on a North Atlantic defense alliance between the five countries of the Western Union (England, France and the three Be-Ne-Lux countries) as well as the United States and Canada. Soon this circle was expanded to include dictatorial Portugal, as well as Italy. Norway and Denmark were also offered to participate in the negotiations in Washington. The offer was strategically motivated. In December 1948, the Labor magazine correspondent in London announced that Norway was ranked first among strategic areas in the draft Atlantic Pact that the London Committee had sent to Washington. It included a priority list for areas of strategic importance, and first all countries with coasts to the Atlantic came.
