The United States and NATO: The Formative Years

In this analysis of NATO's formation and early years, Kaplan describes how the Alliance began as a response to European perceptions and initiatives and ultimately led the U.S. to abandon its cherished tradition of non-entanglement. He examines the tortuous negotiations between Europeans and Americans and the bargaining among individuals, factions, and institutions in the United States to show how anguished the American decision to join Europe in a military alliance was. He also describes the early organizational developments and the impact of the Korean War on NATO. He concludes that though several problems that were not settled in the formative years and still plague NATO, it remains a primary means of bringing about a rational organization of international life. ISBN 0-8131-0159-X (pbk.) : $12.00.