NATO Pledge

Question 1

What’s the first time the NATO non-expansion pledge was made, and who made it?

Answer 1

H. W. Bush in Malta, December 1989

Question 2

Who was the West German foreign minister when the USSR withdrew from East Germany?

Answer 2

Hans-Dietrich Genscher

Question 3

Who was U.S. Secretary of State in 1990?

Answer 3

James Baker

Question 4

Who was James Baker?

Answer 4

The Secretary of State under H.W.

Question 5

Give a rebuttal to the claim that Gorbachev himself said there was no NATO pledge.

Answer 5

03/2008, Former Senator Bill Bradley said Gorbachev told him in conversation that Baker had promised him no troops in East Germany, and that the U.S. had GONE BACK on that promise with NATO expansion.

p.217-218, note 556

(“No troops in E Germany” takes for granted no troops EAST of E Germany)

Also, Gorbachev contradicts himself in the same interview where he says there was no pledge.

Question 6

When arguing that there was no NATO pledge, people often only address the Malta ‘89 instance of the promise being made by HWB - name some other instances of figures giving similar assurances.

Answer 6

• West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher (in a public speech on 1/31/90, jointly with Baker in a press conference on 2/2/90, in a conversation with Baker on 2/6/90, to Russian Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze in convo on 2/10)

• Secretary of State James Baker (to Shevardnadze on 2/7/90, to Gorbachev six times on 2/9/90, to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl on 2/10/90, to Shevardnadze again on 2/9/90, to Gorbachev again on 2/12/90)

• Bush himself, (at NATO meeting in Brussels 12/1989)

• Deputy Nat Sec Adviser Robert Gates (to head of KGB Vladimir Kryuchkov on 2/10)

• German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (to Gorbachev on 2/10/90)

• U.S. State Department to U.S. embassies on 2/13/90)

• German Representative at the 2+4 talks Jürgen Chrobog after a meeting between political directors of the foreign ministries of the U.S., the UK, France and Germany on 3/6/1991)

• U.S. Representative Raymond Seitz after the same meeting ^)

• British PM John Major (to Soviet Defense Minister Marshal Dmitri Yazov on 03/5/91, to Gorbachev on the same day, though in weaker language)

Several others, all on pp. 7-14