FEW know that following the defeat of Hitler’s Germany in 1945, Great Britain, which had ridden to victory on America’s shoulders, made a furtive attempt to destroy its other ally of convenience — Stalin’s USSR.

Without consulting the US, PM Churchill developed a plan — Operation Unthinkable — “to launch an immediate pre-emptive war against the Soviet Union in mid-1945”. He wanted to deliver a knockout blow to the USSR while it was still reeling from World War II.

Churchill had reasons to fear Stalin. By 1950, the Soviet Union had four million troops on hand, with another 800,000 on call from its Eastern bloc. The US had about 1.5m, spread thinly across the globe.

Saner voices in the US, however, saw merit (especially after the Berlin blockade of 1948 and North Korea’s attack on South Korea) in creating an alliance of like-minded Eurocentric countries as a bulwark against the Soviet bloc.

By parenting Nato, the US ended its policy of isolationism.

The Americans took the initiative. They worked towards the formation of Nato. The North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 became Nato’s birth certificate. It came at the expense of its sibling — the UN. While the UN aimed supposedly at ensuring “a globalised,........

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