TOP STORIES FOR SUNNY Quora Why did the USSR ask to join NATO in 1954?
Sunny ambon
The offer of the Soviet Union to join NATO and end the Cold War in 1954 was sincere. Churchill backed it personally, and all countries except the US were in favour.
We are talking 1954. The paranoid regime of Stalin had come to an end, Lavrenty Berja, head of the NKVD, had been executed. The Korean War had ended and both East and West (except for the US) were suffering from crippling defence budgets and the after-effects of World War Two.
Neither the Soviets nor the British and French were interested in continuing the Cold War. At this point, the British and French contributed most to the NATO Forces, the US was only a minor player (the Korean War had really screwed up the American deployment plans for Europe). Berja had already made overtures towards the West, and the proposal of the Soviets to join NATO would have been a great first step towards ending the Cold War and start an era of peaceful co-existence.
This would have been beneficial for all parties involved and would have increased the standard of living for the Soviet and European people (which were still pretty low).
So obviously the Soviets supported the idea.