No European should be surprised at the resentful words spoken in
Brussels last week by Robert Gates, the departing U.S. defense
secretary. Americans have been grumbling about the failure of the
European partners in NATO to pull their weight almost since the
organization was founded in 1949.
“Because we had had our troops there, the Europeans had not done their
share,” President Eisenhower said. “They won’t make the sacrifices to
provide the soldiers for their own defense.”
But there is more to it. If the relationship of the United States with
Europe in NATO included a dubious bargain from the start, the treaty
organization did at least once have a clear purpose.
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A. Cuvelier
