Gary Hart and Gordon Humphrey

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in 1949 by the United States and several European nations. For the next four decades, Europe was divided between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the military alliance between the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. NATO remained an integral part of European and American foreign policy even after the end of the Cold War and the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact in 1991. In April 1998 Congress debated whether to ratify the admission of three former Warsaw Pact members—Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic—into NATO. In the following viewpoint, Gary Hart and Gordon Humphrey argue that taking this step would needlessly antagonize Russian leaders. The United States should instead work to improve and maintain friendly relations with Russia and to...