c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at 76710.3306(AT)compuserve.com.)

UNDATED _ Here’s the gist of a recent conversation I had with a sociologist from Poland about adding Eastern European nations to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization:”The Polish people want to be part of NATO,”he told me,”so they will be free forever from worries about Germany and Russia. NATO means that Germany will have to protect us from Russia.””You mean that America will have to protect you from the Russians,”I said.”We cannot live in peace,”he insisted,”unless we are protected from the Russians.””But who will protect the Russians from the Poles?”I asked.

He smiled complacently.”They have nothing to fear from us,”he said.”As I remember history, you folks captured Moscow once and installed a czar who was a Polish puppet,”I said.

The sociologist looked away. I guess I was not supposed to know that part of Polish history.”Only for two years,”he said.”And then you invaded Russia after the First World War,”I said.”Ah,”he exclaimed, his eyes shining proudly.”That was the time of the Miracle of Warsaw when we drove the Red Army away.””Yeah, but only after they drove you out of Russia,”I said.”We were only trying to help the Ukrainians win their freedom,”he said, obviously hurt. Then he tried to change the subject.

I may not know much about Eastern European history, but what I do know was too much for his comfort level.”Look,”I said,”NATO or not, the American people admire the bravery of the Polish people but they will not tolerate their sons and daughters in harm’s way to defend Poland. Or Hungary or the Czech Republic. Or Slovenia or Romania. Forget about it!” This conversation illustrates the folly of expanding NATO.

NATO was created to be _ and remains in essence _ an anti-Russian military alliance and one cannot blame the newly free, ex-communist countries of Eastern Europe for wanting the cozy protection of the U.S. military.

But only the monumentally stupid can expect the Russians not to feel threatened by NATO expansion. Russia has been invaded too many times not to fear hostile armies on or near its borders. The old”cordon sanitaire”of more or less neutral countries between Russia and Germany no longer exists. Russia’s historic enemies are once again at its doorstep. For now, Russia has no choice but to accept the situation. But a time will come when Russia is strong again, then …

The irony of the expansion of NATO is that it is meaningless. I can’t imagine Congress, no matter who’s in charge, permitting U.S. infantry regiments in Poland, up against the border of Belarus. Not to mention being eventually in Lithuania, facing the territory of Holy Russia itself.

American parents would no more tolerate the deaths of their sons and daughters in the plains of Eastern Europe than they did in the jungles of Vietnam. The benefits of NATO are illusory.

Moreover, why is a military alliance being used as the symbol of rebirth of democratic freedom in Eastern Europe? Comparisons between NATO and the Marshall Plan of the late 1940s, which helped Europe recover after World War II, reveal an incomprehensible ignorance of recent history by government personnel _ up to and including President Clinton.

After the Warsaw Pact between Russian and its socialist puppets in Eastern Europe was dissolved, it would have been better to fold NATO and create a non-military alliance, so as not to make the Russians feel threatened.

I cannot understand why U.S. diplomats, with all their fancy education at Ivy League schools, are so ignorant of Eastern Europe history. But then why should our diplomats take history seriously when media experts and ordinary Americans don’t take it seriously? In fact, most Americans agree with Henry Ford that history is bunk.

But it’s unlikely expansion of NATO will ever happen.

President Clinton would have to round up two thirds of the Senate to get it approved, and since there’s nothing in it that takes money away from the poor and gives it to the rich, it doesn’t stand a chance.

We should all be deeply grateful.

MJP END GREELEY