Forging the Alliance: NATO 1945-1950

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. (May)