European strategists largely dismissed America’s interpretation that force had won the Cold War, believing that cooperation had triumphed precisely because force was absent. They heard in pleas for freedom from behind the Iron Curtain not a desire to become American, but to join the remarkably successful European experiment in collective security and prosperity that emerged after World War II.
但是世界其他国家却从中得到了不同的教训。对于凭暴力赢得冷战这种美国式的解读，欧洲的战略家们基本上不予认可；他们相信合作之所以成功，正是因为暴力的缺席。来自铁幕之内的、对自由的呼唤，在欧洲人听来，并非表达了成为美国人的意愿，而是流露出对参与一场大获成功的欧洲试验之渴望，这场集体安全与繁荣方面的试验起源于二战之后。对于欧洲现在的领导人而言，1989年的核心经验便是：暴力只会带来事与愿违的结果，真正重要的因素是共识。