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MONG THE LATE BARBARA TUCHman's many books was The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam, which examined some of the great mistakes of history. Why did the Trojans drag a suspicious-looking wooden horse inside their walls, despite having reason to believe it was a Greek trick? Why did successive ministries of King George III insist on coercing rather than conciliating the American colonies, even though they were repeatedly advised that the harm done would be greater than any possible gain? Why did the United States intervene in Vietnam militarily even though every president involved realized-or at least was told-that America could not win?
For Tuchman, these mistakes were examples of folly, which she defined as "the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests." It is, she added, "a phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period."
The Clinton administration's campaign to expand NATO into Eastern Europe once again proves that Tuchman was on to something. Last July, at a NATO summit in Madrid, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were invited to join the alliance, a process that is expected to be concluded by 1999, NATO'S fiftieth anniversary. All three countries were Soviet allies in the defunct Warsaw Pact.
The administration has repeatedly stated that these countries will not be the last ones admitted to the alliance. In fact, a majority of alliance members, led by France, wanted to include Romania and Slovenia in the first round of expansion, but were blocked from doing so by the opposition of the United States. Moreover, some former republics of the Soviet Union-particularly the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia-would love to snuggle under the alliance's protective canopy. The Clinton administration has not ruled out the prospect that eventually they will.
Why expansion?
The Clinton administration initiated the NATO expansion effort in 1994, ostensibly to encourage democracy, human rights reforms, and free-market economies in Central and Eastern Europe by offering the countries of those regions the protection of NATO's shield. To qualify for membership, Hungary patched up disputes over ethnic minority rights and territorial border lines with Slovakia and Romania. Romania has done the same with neighboring Moldova and Ukraine.
At first, Clinton was lukewarm to the idea of adding new members...