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Presidents and Russia: Bill Clinton and the Expansion of NATO

The end of the Cold War (for the time being) and a swift victory in a war in Iraq were not enough to ensure President George H. W. Bush a second term in office and in 1992, Bush was defeated by Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in the Presidential election. Clinton was not as experienced as Bush was when it came to international affairs, but he did come into office with a goal of encouraging many of the new nations that had broken away from the former Soviet Union to become members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, better known as NATO.



Clinton believed that NATO would provide a stabilizing influence in the region with those countries among its membership. Russian leaders felt threatened by this however. NATO is now a military alliance made up of of twenty-eight European and two North American countries, allied together for a system of collective defense. The process of joining the alliance is set out in Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which allows for the invitation of other European States. Countries wishing to join must meet certain requirements relating to political and military considerations. The process is overseen by the North Atlantic Council, NATO's governing body.

NATO was originally formed in 1949 with twelve founding members. The organization grew rapidly by including Greece and Turkey in 1952 and West Germany in 1955. The addition of West Germany into NATO had led the Soviet Union to form its own collective security alliance, called the Warsaw Pact. Spain joined NATO in 1982.

In 1990 the Soviet Union and NATO reached an agreement that a reunified Germany would join NATO under West Germany's pre-existing membership, but restrictions were agreed to concerning the deployment of NATO troops on former East German territory. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to a number former Warsaw Pact and post-Soviet states requesting to join NATO, leading to objections from Russia as it felt threatened by NATO membership among its former supporters and immediate neighbors. This became more problematic in 1996, when President Clinton called for former Warsaw Pact countries and post-Soviet republics join NATO, and made NATO enlargement a crucial part of his foreign-policy.

In February 1991, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia formed the Visegrád Group and lobbied for European integration under the European Union and NATO. At first, NATO reaction to these former Warsaw Pact countries was negative, but by the 1991 Rome summit in November, members agreed to a series of goals that could lead to accession, such as market and democratic liberalization. NATO insisted that it should be a partner in efforts to achieve these goals.

Russian military actions increased the desire of these former Soviet allies to desire membership in NATO. These included the First Chechen War, a rebellion by the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria against the Russian Federation, fought from December 1994 to August 1996. The Transnistria War was an armed conflict that broke out in November of 1990 in Dubăsari between pro-Transnistria forces, including the Transnistrian Republican Guard, militia and neo-Cossack units (supported by elements of the Russian 14th Army), and pro-Moldovan forces, including Moldovan troops. There had also been war in Abkhazia fought between Georgian government forces and Abkhaz separatist forces, supported by Russian government armed forces. This war was fought between 1992 and 1993. Ethnic Georgians who lived in Abkhazia fought largely on the side of Georgian government forces. Ethnic Armenians and Russians supported the Abkhazian separatists, who received support from the Russian Federation forces stationed in and near Abkhazia.

There conflicts motivated many Central and Eastern European countries, especially those with memories of similar Soviet aggression, to push for NATO membership in order to ensure their long-term security. Political parties who were either opposed to NATO membership or who procrastinated on the issue were voted out of office. These included the Bulgarian Socialist Party in 1996 and the Slovak HZDS in 1998.In November of 1997 Hungary held a referendum on joining NATO which resulted in a vote of 85.3% in favor of membership.

Clinton worked to cultivate a good relationship with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and in 1997, Clinton convinced a reluctant Yeltsin to accede to the expansion of NATO. This allowed Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic to join the new Alliance. Yeltsin pressed for a commitment not to expand NATO into the Baltic states, but Clinton was unwilling to bind his successors to such a promise. The French pushed for the addition of Romania and Slovenia to NATO, but Clinton was opposed to this, believing that too much of an expansion into Eastern Europe would lose the compromises that he had been able to achieve with Yeltsin.

Clinton tried to work with Yeltsin to strengthen the Russian economy and avoid an economic depression there. He believed that this woild prevent a resurgence of Communism. Clinton helped Yeltsin in his bid to win reelection in 1996, and also used his influence in order for Russia to join the Group of Eight (G8), a conference of the countries with the largest economies.

Clinton's relationship with Yeltsin was certainly a strange one. Perhaps the weirdest incident in their professional relationship took place when Yeltsin was visiting the White House in September of 1994 during his first meeting with Clinton. According to author Taylor Branch in his book The Clinton Tapes, Yeltsin had got very drunk and wandered into the street in his underwear, trying to get a pizza. In the book, Branch wrote: "Secret Service agents discovered Yeltsin alone on Pennsylvania Avenue, dead drunk, clad in his underwear, yelling for a taxi. Yeltsin slurred his words in a loud argument with the baffled agents. He did not want to go back into Blair House, where he was staying. He wanted a taxi to go out for pizza.” Branch asked Clinton how the situation ended, and in response, Clinton merely shrugged and said, “Well, he got his pizza.” But Clinton added that the next night Yeltsin tried to do it again. There is also this famous video of a laughing fit that the two leaders had together:



A problematic area in Eastern Europe for Clinton and for the rest of the world at that time was in the former Yugoslavia. During the closing stages of the Cold War, Serbian nationalist Slobodan Milošević had taken power as the leader of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. His nationalist policies alienated leaders of the other countries of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia had been a multi-ethnic state that had been established in 1918. Slovenia, Croatia, and the Republic of Macedonia all had declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, but Serbian forces were opposed Croatia's independence. This led to what became known as the Yugoslav Wars. In 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina also declared independence. A large minority of Serbs living in the region opposed independence for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian War began with supporters and opponents of independence on each side. This led to mass genocide in the form of "ethnic cleansing" campaigns conducted by Bosnian Serbs. This led to world condemnation, and it became a contentious issue as to whether or not the US and other supporting nations should intervene in the Balkan Wars. Clinton faced a moral dilemma as humanitarian concerns called for military intervention to end the ethnic cleansing, while others called for the US to abstain from a military intervention, where the United States lacked any strategic interests.

In May 1994, after Serb forces invaded safe zones established by the United Nations Protection Force, Clinton authorized air strikes against Serb positions. The air strikes did not end Serb advances, and in July 1995 over 8,000 Bosniaks were killed in the Srebrenica massacre. Clinton and National Security Adviser Anthony Lake agreed on a plan to end the genocide in Bosnia, through a major NATO air campaign against the Bosnian Serbs. Clinton won the support of European leaders for the campaign, and NATO then launched Operation Deliberate Force. In reaction to bombing campaign and the advance of Bosniak forces, Milošević agreed to begin peace talks. Clinton sponsored the talks in Dayton Ohio, appointing Richard Holbrooke in charge. The subsequent Dayton Agreement ended the Bosnian War and divided Bosnia into two autonomous regions.



Milošević was charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with war crimes in connection with the Bosnian War, the Croatian War of Independence, and the Kosovo War. He became the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes. Milošević resigned from the Yugoslav presidency after the disputed presidential election of September 24, 2000. He was arrested by Yugoslav federal authorities on March 31, 2001 on suspicion of corruption, abuse of power, and embezzlement. The initial investigation into Milošević was unsuccessful due to lack of evidence. However Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić agreed to extradite Milošević to the ICTY to stand trial for war crimes. Milošević denounced the Tribunal as illegal because it had not been established with the consent of the United Nations General Assembly. He refused to appoint counsel for his defence and instead conducted his own defense. Before a verdict was reached in the trial, Milošević died in his prison cell in The Hague on March 11, 2006 from a heart attack.
Tags: bill clinton, george h. w. bush
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