Reading the Defence Forces Review 2006, I came across this little snippet.
"Western analyses of Soviet intentions at that time did not consider that Ireland was under threat or was even part of a Soviet geo-contingency. Indeed Ireland's application to join NATO was declined by both the US and British governments, affirmation if such were needed that Ireland was not considered to feature in Soviet geo-strategic thinking (5). This latter point, however, remains to be proven."
So hop on over to footnote 5.
"For an interesting new disclosure on Ireland's application to join the Western Alliance, see: Garret Fitzgerald: "Ireland in the World: Further Reflections." Liberties Press, Dublin, 2005 pp198/199."
Maybe I've just been living under a rock for a while, but this is the first I've heard of it. Can anyone fill me in as to when this was, how far the application went (was it a formal application, or just government officials talking to NATO off-the-record), and so on and so forth.
NTM
"Western analyses of Soviet intentions at that time did not consider that Ireland was under threat or was even part of a Soviet geo-contingency. Indeed Ireland's application to join NATO was declined by both the US and British governments, affirmation if such were needed that Ireland was not considered to feature in Soviet geo-strategic thinking (5). This latter point, however, remains to be proven."
So hop on over to footnote 5.
"For an interesting new disclosure on Ireland's application to join the Western Alliance, see: Garret Fitzgerald: "Ireland in the World: Further Reflections." Liberties Press, Dublin, 2005 pp198/199."
Maybe I've just been living under a rock for a while, but this is the first I've heard of it. Can anyone fill me in as to when this was, how far the application went (was it a formal application, or just government officials talking to NATO off-the-record), and so on and so forth.
NTM
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