Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson and Prof. David Gibbs
Professor of History at the University of Arizona, David Gibbs joined the effort by Rootsaction to explain Russia’s longstanding issue with NATO. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to – in their own words: “provide collective security against the Soviet Union.”
Both Gibbs and Wilkerson say that the promise of not expanding NATO East towards the then Soviet Union was indeed a formal quid pro quo in return for the USSR allowing Germany to re-unite, not just a casual conversation.
On February 6, 2022, the Coalition for Peace Action held a webinar with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on peaceful alternatives in the Russia-Ukraine-NATO crisis.
Wilkerson is former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. Since January 2006 he has taught Government and Public Policy at the College of William & Mary. He is welcomed by Rev. Robert Moore who has served as Executive Director of the Coalition for Peace Action since 1981.
CREDIT: Rootsaction and the Coalition for Peace Action
DATE 2022/02/06
Link to the declassified documents in the National Security Archive mentioned in this broadcast is at https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early
Speakers are at youtube.com/watch?v=1XDyTb5K2_4 and progressivehub.net/no-war-in-ukraine/#learnmore
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 39.8MB)
