NATO expanding due to Putin's Ukraine war, retired Waterloo general says
Evan "Curly" Hultman, who headed NATO-affiliated reserve officers group, plans to attend Helsinki conference in June.
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s brutal war on Urkrainian civilians is only serving to strengthen and expand the NATO alliance, according to a retired Waterloo general who headed an alliance-affiliated reserve officers organization.
“It’s a tragic time,” said retired U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Gen. Evan “Curly” who headed the Reserve Officers Association of the United States, and the NATO-affiliated Interallied Confederation of Reserve Officers under multiple U.S. presidents in the 1980s and ’90s. He is the confederation’s honorary president for life. The organization, also known as the Confédération Interalliée des Officiers de Réserve or CIOR, is the world’s largest military reserve officer organization, representing one million reservists over 34 countries.
Hultman said the year-long Russian war on Ukraine, and Russia’s atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, are not only redoubling NATO’s resolve but cementing decisions by the nations of Sweden and Finland to seek full membership in the NATO alliance.
“There’s no question in my mind this has been the driving force that has pushed both Sweden and Finland into ultimately full NATO and CIOR membership,” Hultman said. “I would have thought that more thought would have been given by Putin to the result of his actions.
“Those two held out over the years,” Hultman said. “But I think the threats, and the invasion, and the methodology of the fighting,” are further proof to Sweden and Finland of the wisdom in joining NATO for their own security.
“Here the Russians are bombing children, hospitals, which is incredible,” he said. “Those actions are so dastardly it would drive any human being to get support to fight.”
It’s not only inhumane, but he also suggested it’s a tactical mistake on the Russians’ part. Given the high casualty rate among Russian troops, “I would think priority number one would be fighting men and machines of war, instead of hospitals, schools, neighborhoods,” Hultman said.
“Finland and Sweden joining NATO would firmly bind them to Article 5” of the NATO charter, Hultman said, “which is the article that says if you attack any one of us, you attack all of us…Sweden and Finland, in my judgment, are going to be full members shortly.”
Hultman, a World War II veteran and also a former Iowa attorney general and U.S. district attorney, plans to attend a NATO conference in Helsinki, Finland in late June, accompanied by his daughter, retired U.S. Army Col. Heidi Warrington. The conference is about a week ahead of Hultman’s 98th birthday. He’s certain Russia’s war on Ukraine will be a key issue.
“I think a lot will come out of this meeting” in Helsinki, Hultman said.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the anti-NATO Soviet-headed Warsaw Pact alliance, Hultman was part of an effort within CIOR. parallel to NATO’s “Partnership for Peace” program, to bring those former Warsaw pact nations such as Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and others into the NATO alliance.
Hultman helped those nations organize a ready reserve of military forces that met standards for those nations’ acceptance into NATO, as a safeguard against those countries ever again coming under any resurgent Russian or Soviet domination.
Consequently, Hultman said NATO membership has grown over the years from 13 to 30 countries, allowing those countries’ economies to prosper under the Western sphere of influence.
At the time the Berlin Wall fell, and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, some questioned the need for NATO to continue to exist, Hultman said. But uplifting the former Warsaw Pact countries and bringing them into NATO gave the alliance a purpose -- a purpose which has been affirmed the the current crisis in Ukraine.
“It’s timely, right now, with what’s going on in Europe,” Hultman said.
“Clearly the economy was a key issue,” he added, “the difference between the East and the West, using Germany as an example. It was flourishing in West Germany and East Germany was a poor as poor can be. The Eastern zone couldn’t help but ultimately want a change. The West was great and the East was so poor it was just tragic.”
With the ouster of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, who promoted glasnost and perestroika and reached an nuclear arms agreement with the U.S., and with Russian President Boris Yeltsin being a transitional leader, it gave an opporunity for an individual like Putin, Yeltsin’s chosen successor, to build a base of power .
“It’s understandable” Putin thinks the way he does, Hultman said. “Here’s a guy who spent his whole life in that crazy era,” the Cold War. “He is a member of his society and has never lived outside of it – the KGB,” the Soviet intelligence and security agency. “He’s a KGB guy.
“I am amazed how times repeat themselves,” he said. “I thought we had made tremendous progress, not just with the countries of the Warsaw Pact, but even with Russia. But here comes a Russian leader of the old, old… I think he’s worse than Stalin.”
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Looks like Curly was right on the money. Finland joined NATO today.
How can I contact Curly Hultman? My husband (Bruce Hedblom) commanded the 451st Army Reserve Band at Fort Snelling and Curly was so supportive of the Band. He even sang several songs with the Band. We have him on tape. Perhaps he would a copy of the disk.
Carol Cline-Hedblom