ABSTRACT
During 1945-1989, the period of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe, a most peculiar combination of circumstances and interests affected US relations in the region. Eastern Europe itself, a vital part of the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republic's (USSR) foreign policy and security interests throughout the postwar period, is at best of secondary importance to US foreign policy interests. At the same time, the United States adhered to a formally declared policy toward the region, which if that policy had been realized, would have fundamentally challenged the USSR’s vital security interests in the region. The progression of events in Eastern Europe from 1945 through early 1948 confirmed the entirely rhetorical character of US “policy” toward Eastern Europe. At no point was the United States prepared to contemplate the actual use of its immense diplomatic potential, resting as it did on US military and economic supremacy, to affect the evolution of Soviet-East European relations.
