The Image of NATO and the American Public Opinion

Year 1979, Issue: 19, 115 - 123, 01.05.1979

Aysel Aziz

https://doi.org/10.1501/Intrel_0000000201

Abstract

The Image of NATO and the American Public Opinion

Abstract

"Isolation" and "Isolationism" are two words which had
shaped American Foreign policy until the beginning of the 19.
century. American isolation such as it was, had died about the
turn of the century, where as American isolationism has been
in decliııe ever since. It has been in decline promoted by the
strategic realities of the shrinking world in which Americans
live. The system of alliances began simply as a means of formalizing the concept of solidarity of American States. This
concept was developed during the presidency of Franklin D.
Roosevelt (1932-1945). But the means used for restating the
policy of Western Hemisphere solidarity provided the framework for the new policy. Early in the Cold War and very shortly
after the United States actively entered the European arena,
the basic strategic ingredient in the European situation was
the danger of Soviet aggression. Washington soon reached a
correspondingly basic decission that the defence of the West
was to be based on a 'forward strategy'. This meant the line
NATO would defend against a Soviet assault would be in the
zone of initial contact —along the Iron Curtain and the Elbe
River— rather than along the Rhine after giving up almost ali
central Europe to Soviet forces. This decision carried important and far-reaching implications for future doctrine and policy.(***)

Keywords

The Image, NATO, American Public Opinion