Had Churchill not succeeded in sucking Washington into the Second World War Hitler might well have beaten the Brits in that war. Since the Soviets and the U. S believed in different economic and political ideologies, a friction was bound to occur between them once the war was over. The world , therefore, saw emergence of two hostile groups , one headed by the U. S. under a military pact known as NATO and the other billed as Warsaw Pact which was masterminded by the Soviet Union. It is another matter that after the break up of the Soviet Union the Warsaw Pact lost much of its utility which, in turn, made the U. S. to revisit NATO and many Americans are now asking whether there is any genuine need of NATO in the changed political circumstances.
Had the Americans not helped the war-battered Europe after the Second World War in a big way through gigantic developmental package like the Marshal plan it would not have found its feet. Some of the countries like France, no doubt, in their heart of hearts, never liked to play second fiddle to the Americans , but by and large, NATO remained in tact . Lately, however, when Trump raised the slogan ‘America first’ many eyebrows are being raised about the future of US-Europe detente.
Trump is not happy over the fact that while the European countries, taken together, have been contributing only 21 percent of the entire budget of NATO, the rest of its expenditure us being incurred by the U.S.
Most of the gas needs of European countries are being met by Russia and many European countries don’t want to spoil their relations with Moscow at the behest of Washington.
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