US-Spain Relations from the Second Cold War to the Soviet Communism Crisis: From NATO to a new cooperation framework

Abstract

This article analyses the evolution of US-Spain relationships from the Spanish Socialists’ victory in the 1982 elections to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The work draws on a variety of primary sources scarcely used to date. The debate regarding Spain’s NATO membership and its consequences for those relationships are examined in the first place. The second part deals with the 1986 Spanish Referendum and the renegotiation of the bilateral agreements leading to the Defense Cooperation Agreement in 1988. Finally, it illustrates to what extent the rebalancing of those relationships allowed Spain to extend her cooperation with the United States, on the basis of Felipe González’s and George H. W. Bush’s mutual trust generated thereafter.

Keywords

• españa
• estados unidos
• guerra fría
• organización del tratado del atlántico norte (otan)
• felipe gonzález
• george w. bush