WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th February, 2023) The outbreak of war between Russia and newly independent Ukraine was a "dangerous possibility," President George H.W. Bush's outgoing Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger advised his successor Warren Christopher, who served President Bill Clinton when the latter took office in 1993, newly released US archival documents said.
Among "potential troubles" was "armed conflict between Russia and any of a number of states on its periphery, with Ukraine not the most likely but certainly the most dangerous possibility," Eagleburger warned Christopher, according to one of the documents newly released from the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
"Russia's course in the years ahead holds the key to the future configuration of power in Eurasia ... (and) will determine whether a long-term threat to US security re-emerges in that vast landmass," Eagleburger wrote in a memorandum to Christopher.
A major US policy priority in dealing with Russia was to "lock in... further stabilizing reductions of nuclear weapons" and to ensure that Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus did not renege on their nuclear non-proliferation commitments, Eagleburger wrote.
Eagleburger also urged the incoming Clinton administration to support Russia's economic reforms, since history would not judge the United States kindly if it failed to offer generous assistance, the document said.
