North Atlantic Treaty Organization - Obama Presidency Oral History Back North Atlantic Treaty Organization Index / Organizations Transcripts Tommy Vietor ...which was the Russia one. I went on the NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization]—... ...went to Moscow. My first trip was the NATO summit. It was a G20 [Group of Twenty... ...summit. It was a G20 [Group of Twenty] NATO summit, and then a couple of othe... ...the former supreme allied commander of NATO is just hanging out in meetings? It's ... Dennis Ross ...the European alliance. It wasn't just NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization]... ...alliance. It wasn't just NATO [ North Atlantic Treaty Organization ], but it was with the EU as well, an... Derek Chollet ...in terms of the engagements with NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization]... ...in terms of the engagements with NATO [ North Atlantic Treaty Organization ], which was leading the operatio... ...and control of the air campaign to NATO by several months into the ai... ...it was our European partners through NATO or other countries that had plugge... ...countries that had plugged into the NATO command structure who were actuall... ...to be the deputy secretary general of NATO . So the position was vacant, and I wa... ...So I spent most of my time on Europe, NATO , and the Middle East. And I would sa... ...a lot of work right there. And then NATO , throughout, but particularl... ...of Ukraine; spent a lot of time on NATO . [INTERRUPTION] I thought maybe w... ...Department, and then maybe turn to NATO and Russia. But two countries w... ...your focus pretty dramatically to NATO and Eastern Europe. I think I remembe... ...everything we could militarily through NATO and otherwise to reassure our allies... ...we were doing. I want to ask about the NATO response to this and the extent t... ...or satisfaction with the place of the NATO relationship? I'm thinking of, in 2014... ...2014, Hagel—I think it's 2014—calls on NATO members to increase spending. That'... ...States was expecting more from its NATO partners? Or was that something else? ... ...talked about the importance of NATO partners spending more. One of Gates'... ...was a pretty strong speech on why NATO partners needed to spend more. So tha... ...US power in the Middle East. Of course, NATO led the Libya air campaign, an... ...from moving forward? I actually think NATO responded pretty well. Then, if yo... ...would you have had the Wales Pledge of NATO leaders agreeing that they needed t... ...of 2013, early 2014, that—there was a NATO summit that was supposed to happen i... ...when we were thinking about the NATO summit, which helps illustrate you... ...point a little bit. The relevance of NATO and the unique military alliance tha... ...the unique military alliance that is NATO , the uniqueness of that, was quit... ...and a bit on Russia and Crimea and NATO . A topic we didn't get to was Syria... ...coalition on the margins of the NATO summit in Wales in July, I think, o... ...and defense ministers on the margins of NATO to talk about our coordinated campaig... Show more... Michèle Flournoy ...to get us started, and then we'll get NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] t... ...us started, and then we'll get NATO [ North Atlantic Treaty Organization ] to approve a mission, and the US ca... ...leads to another, and it turns out NATO would have a hard time doing th... Robert Gates ...mission in Afghanistan was actually a NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization... ...in Afghanistan was actually a NATO [ North Atlantic Treaty Organization ] mission. And several othe... ...thousand should be made up by the NATO allies. I think we ultimately got seve... ...got seven or eight thousand additional NATO allied troops in there. So th... Susan Rice ...support, the operation itself being a NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization... ...the operation itself being a NATO [ North Atlantic Treaty Organization ] operation––but there's a sense i... Chuck Hagel ...our partners were questioning—because NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization... ...were questioning—because NATO [ North Atlantic Treaty Organization ] was with us, as you know, i... ...as well as many other countries, non- NATO countries were with us. What was the U... ...same time, every time I would go to a NATO meeting and meet with my twenty-eigh... ...to persuade them to keep five thousand NATO troops and other non-NATO troops there... ...thousand NATO troops and other non- NATO troops there, to bolster our eigh... ...I wrote that, I was coming back from a NATO meeting when I wrote that memo. I ha... ...the United States wanted to do with NATO , and through NATO, in responding t... ...wanted to do with NATO, and through NATO , in responding to what Puti... ...friends and allies who recently joined NATO , thinking, I think primarily, tha... ...organization, not as effective as NATO , but ten Asian countries. We're not ... ...Fund], World Bank, collective security, NATO , United Nations, General Agreement o... ...this was—that you were calling on NATO members to deliver on their commitmen... ...to what Russia did there? As to the NATO members committing to get to that tw... ...What do we do about it? We met with our NATO partners. I had a lot of meetings. W... ...was work this diplomatically with our NATO allies and Russia, and sanctions, an... ...what we could do. And we were helping, NATO was helping with defense activities... ...That's why I originally asked about NATO , because I was curious at that poin... ...part to this story. We bolstered NATO forces along those borders. I was i... ...[F-16 Fighting Falcon] in there. More NATO troops in Poland—I was in Poland, an... ...was in Poland, and we bolstered NATO forces along their border, along th... ...mainly US platforms and forces, but all NATO —Lithuania. So, yes, I took part in ... ...And that's one of the responses that NATO had was bolstering that western borde... ...don't want to give the impression that NATO or the United States didn't d... ...it. But we were going to defend the NATO countries. Now if they would've move... ...because, as you know, Article 5 in the NATO Treaty, we would've been required t... ...holding and strengthening our allies in NATO and doing more with them. Moving mor... Show more... William Taylor ...defense advisor to the US ambassador to NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] ... ...advisor to the US ambassador to NATO [ North Atlantic Treaty Organization ] . He served for five years on th... ...what happened. When I came back from NATO and started—in answer to your question... ...I came back from US mission to NATO , where I had focused on nationa... ...follow-on. The only follow-on was at NATO , we were focused on defendin... ...the security associations, like maybe NATO , the political associations an... ...thinking about its relationship with NATO , the options it had available to it... Show more... 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