Forging the Alliance: NATO 1945-1950 - Hardcover

Cook, Don

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1557100438 ISBN 13: 9781557100436

Publisher: Arbor House Publishing, 1989

Synopsis

Book by Cook, Don

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Cook traces the fundamental transformation of U.S. policy in post-WW II Europe that culminated in the signing of the NATO Treaty on April 4, 1949. Discussing the reluctance of the Truman administration and the State Department to be drawn into the kind of "entangling alliance" warned against by George Washington in 1796, he describes the difficulties in winning political and public support before the Soviet-imposed Berlin Blockade dramatized the necessity for a collective defense of Europe. Cook gives much credit for organizing the alliance to Ernest Bevin, whom he considers the outstanding British Foreign Secretary of the century. Discussing the present condition of NATO in the final chapter, he advocates reducing the current U.S. commitment, pointing out that European members are now in a position to take greater responsibility for their own security. A former foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times , Cook has written a highly readable account of the creation and implementation of NATO with emphasis on the contributions of the founders. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Cook, a former foreign correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, has written a journalistic account of NATO's formative years. The major players--Churchill, Bevin, Truman, Kennan, Eisenhower, and others--are linked in this dramatic fashion. Their roles provide the setting for the most significant change in American foreign policy in 150 years. Through NATO, the United States became entangled in European affairs on a permanent basis. Cook provides 11 well-researched chapters on his subject, but, unfortunately, discusses NATO's first 40 years of existence in the space of a few final pages.
- Dennis Felbel, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnipeg
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Arbor House Publishing
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 1557100438
• ISBN 13: 9781557100436
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 306