Truman's American empire - Nato was the first outing for the domino theory.

Since the Cold War ended Nato has ceased to be purely defensive and the USA has been very aggressive indeed. 

The present teaches us about the past and looking back to the creation of Nato it never purely defensive. It was always an American empire.

Eisenhower said in February 1951 “If in 10 years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project will have failed.”

The cold war and the arms race were unnecessary, George Kennan said. Of course that's true. I saw the cold war was unnecessary in the 1980s. 

He opposed the creation of Nato. I thought that Nato was what the UN was intended to be and had kept the peace. 

I was grateful to the USA for Nato but I wanted peaceful coexistence with the Soviet Bloc. Détente.

Stalin had no intention of conquering Europe, as Hitler did. He said England would never allow Greece to go Communist and he did nothing much to help Italian and French Communists. 

I suppose Nato was the first outing for the domino theory.

We don't know if Hitler intended to conquer Europe (it's very unlikely) rather than recapture lands lost in 1919 and conquer Russia, until that is England and France went to war with Germany. That is another story. 

Franklin Roosevelt provoked Japan to go to war and in our time the USA has similarly provoked Russia, China and Iran. Chamberlain said the Americans pushed England into going to war in 1939.