Historically Speaking
The Commonwealth of Independent States at 20
D
NATO
strike back? The Third World War: August
ecember 8th marks the 20th anniverBy BG John S. Brown
1985,
a book popular at the time and writsary of the Commonwealth of IndeU.S. Army retired
ten by General Sir John Hackett and other
pendent States (CIS) and, correspondingly, the demise of the Soviet Union. We American soldiers senior officers and advisors, envisioned a scenario wherein
are inclined to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall two years enraged Soviets lashed out at the West. Although the
earlier as the decisive event, ending the Cold War and premise of containment had been that the communist monobringing more than 40 years of martial rivalry to a satisfac- lith would topple from its own internal weaknesses if it
tory conclusion. The Berlin Wall and Inner German Border could not expand, the fate of Eastern Europe was not yet setwere central to the personal and professional experiences of tled and the success of its popular revolts not yet irreversible.
The permanence of changes in Eastern Europe pivoted
many of us, and their disappearance made a huge impression on all who bore witness. Checkpoint Charlie and Ob- upon the character and grip of General Secretary of the Comservation Point Alpha were rightly iconic for several gener- munist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorations of American soldiers. Little that followed the Fall of bachev’s domestic policies of glasnost (openness), perestroika
the Wall was historically inevitable, however, and the (restructuring) and demokratizatsiya (democratization) chalevents of December 1991 may provide a better benchmark lenged the corruption, secretiveness and overcentralization
of the Soviet economy and state. Abroad he pursued imfor the end of an era.
The initial reaction of the U.S. Army to the populist proved relations, trade and disarmament. In 1989 Gorbachev
“tsunami” sweeping Eastern Europe was cautious. Uprisings replaced the pugnacious Brezhnev Doctrine with the playagainst communist rule had occurred before: East Germany fully renamed “Sinatra Doctrine,” referring to the hit tune
in 1953, Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, and “My Way.” This committed to allowing satellite nations to
Poland in 1956, 1970, 1976 and 1980. Time and again the So- determine their own destinies without Soviet intervention.
viets had crushed popular movements with overwhelming Gorbachev acquired rock star status, while official American
force. Former Army Chief of Staff GEN Carl E. Vuono reaction was receptive yet equivocal. Gorbachev’s reforms
praised developments in Eastern Europe but cautioned, were not intended to destroy the Communist Party but
“History teaches us that the collapse of great empires sel- rather to strengthen it and make it more efficient. Eastern Eudom takes place without great upheaval. … revolutionary ropean communist parties might land on their feet as well. If
changes in regimes, however benignly they may begin, often Warsaw Pact satellites charted a course like that of Finland,
quickly dissolve into massive conflict.” Former commander Soviet influence would be weakened, but this would be
of U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army GEN Crosbie E. more than offset if Germany were “Finlandized” as well. If
Saint counseled “the need to consider capabilities of poten- neutrality were the price of reunification and the Germans
tial adversaries, not just their announced policies. The world paid it, NATO’s military posture in Central Europe would
still is unpredictable. …” If hard-liners once again seized the collapse. If France’s policies remained unchanged, NATO
reins of power in the Kremlin, was it not likely they would forces and infrastructure north of the Alps would be confined to the tiny triangle formed by Belgium, Luxembourg
West German Chancellor
and the Netherlands. In some future scenario, Soviet forces
Helmut Kohl, at NATO in Bruspouring across the Polish border would enjoy huge advansels, Belgium, in March 1990,
tages over allies trying to wedge themselves into Central Euhelped negotiate the dissolurope through a few North Sea ports.
tion of the Soviet Union that
Fortunately, the German people and their allies were well
ended the Cold War.
served at this critical moment by the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), Helmut Kohl—
the longest-serving chancellor since Otto von Bismarck. Kohl
tirelessly parleyed with the new leaders of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), which had overwhelmingly voted by plebiscite for a unified democratic German
nation. He nudged along negotiations among the former occupying powers: France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. He repeatedly shuttled to
Moscow for intense personal diplomacy with Gorbachev. He
made or reiterated concessions: Germany gave up all claims
78
ARMY ■ December 2011
G
lapsed. Yeltsin was a Russian nationalist who had declared
the primacy of Russian laws over those of the Soviet Union
within Russia. Nationalists in each of the other Soviet republics took the same position. Yeltsin met with his counterBG John S. Brown, USA Ret., was chief of military history at
the U.S. Army Center of Military History from December
1998 to October 2005. He commanded the 2nd Battalion, 66th
Armor, in Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War and returned
to Kuwait as commander of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, in 1995. He has a doctorate in history from Indiana
University. His book, Kevlar Legions: A History of Army
Transformation 1989–2005, was recently published.
Brown, John Sloan, Kevlar Legions: A History of Army
Transformation 1989–2005 (Washington, D.C.: Center
of Military History, 2011)
Bush, George, and Scowcroft, Brent, A World Transformed (New York: Knopf, 1998)
Echikson, William, Lighting the Night: Revolution in
Eastern Europe (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1990)
Gaddis, John Lewis, The United States and the End of
the Cold War: Implications, Reconsiderations, Provocations (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992)
December 2011 ■ ARMY
79
George Bush Library White House Photograph Collection
The Ronald Reagan Museum at Eureka College
to lands beyond the Oder-Neisse and in
the Sudetenland; Germany forswore
nuclear, chemical or biological weapons; German armed forces would not
exceed 370,000; non-German armed
forces would not be permitted in the
former East Germany; Germany and its
allies would pay for grants and economic aid to the ailing Soviet economy;
and Germany would finance the relocation of Soviet forces. Gorbachev and
Kohl finally struck a deal, and Germany’s Cold War allies went along. The
Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany was signed in
Moscow on September 12, 1990. On October 3, Brandenburg, MecklenburgSoviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (left) and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (right).
Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt,
Thuringia and Berlin officially joined
the Federal Republic of Germany as constituent states. Ger- parts from Belarus and the Ukraine in Belovezhskaya Pushcha
many remained a member of NATO and the European and jointly announced the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Union. The disposition of American forces within Germany and its replacement by a Commonwealth of Independent
remained unchanged. It was a great time to be an American States. Russia took the seat of the former Soviet Union in the
soldier serving in Germany. German neighbors—and Ger- United Nations on December 24. President Gorbachev remans they had never met—stopped soldiers in uniform to signed the following day. The Soviet Union had ceased to exthank them and their countrymen for having stood beside ist. The Cold War was truly over.
them through the long night of the Cold War.
None of this in any way denigrates the long-term defenders of Checkpoint Charlie and Observation Point Alorbachev remained true to his word and allowed for- pha. Without their commitment and sacrifice, a happy conmer satellites to go their own way without military in- clusion to the Cold War would have been impossible.
tervention. Nations got down to the gritty business of estab- Great events are seldom precisely defined, however, and
lishing workable multiparty democracies. Gorbachev was missions are seldom satisfactorily complete without folawarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Fears of a coup by low-up. The Fall of the Wall required the transformation of
Soviet hard-liners were not unfounded, however. On August the Soviet Union to guarantee permanence. Significant fur18, 1991, conspirators trapped Gorbachev in his Crimean ther efforts would be necessary to nurture democratic govdacha, declared a state of emergency, and rolled tanks and ernance, the peaceful and lawful resolution of disputes,
troops to Russia’s parliament building to pre-empt a “New and military deference to civilian rule in the former WarUnion Treaty” creating a less centralized and more democra- saw Pact. Partnership for Peace was a case in point with retic “Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics.” Boris Yeltsin, the spect to such efforts. The process is not yet complete.
President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic American soldiers can be proud of their success, but they
and, ironically, a long-term rival of Gorbachev’s, galvanized can never rest on their laurels.
✭
mass protests. In a trickle, and then a flood, invading soldiers
joined the mobilized citizenry. Other soldiers redeployed
Recommended Reading:
from the area on their own initiative, and the conspiracy col-