Thomas Daschle: “the question of whether to expand the NATO alliance is one of the most important foreign policy decisions this Senate…”

“the question of whether to expand the NATO alliance is one of the most important foreign policy decisions this Senate has been called upon to make since the fall of the Berlin Wall. We will make history with this vote. So it would seem appropriate to consult history before we cast it. That's what I did the other day. I re-read some of the debate that took place in this chamber 49 years ago, when our predecessors, in the tumultuous years following the Second World War, had the courage and foresight to commit our own nation to this alliance. One of the chief supporters was Arthur Vandenberg, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Vandenberg, a Republican from Michigan, predicted that NATO would become ``the greatest war deterrent in history.'' History has proven him right. Because of NATO, a region that produced two cataclysmic wars in this century has now known a half-century of peace and stability. Those of us who were born after the Second World War tend to take that for granted. But in fact, it is a remarkable accomplishment. Just as the map of Europe was redrawn at the end of World War II, it has been redrawn again with the end of the Cold War. Nations that once marched in lockstep with totalitarian dictatorships have been transformed into struggling young democracies. It is time for us to redefine NATO to match the new map, the new reality, of this post-Cold War world.”