Lone Wolf - I concur fully with your comments. About 12 years ago I too was a lowly minion dealing with accession issues in NATO. In my trips around former WARPAC Countries there were two recurrent themes:
- NATO will keep the Russians Out, and,
- This will bring us closer to joining the EU (in fact, you couldn't slip a cheap cigarette paper between NATO & EU).
I never, ever recall undue US pressure (my boss was a senior US diplomat) nor do I recall MFA and MOD staff in these countries ever exclaiming 'Amerika, Amerika!' I do recall, however, being assailed with all manner of pretty awful stories about the Soviet occupation...