If Germans had a right to decide to join Nato, then why not Poles and Czechs – or, for that matter, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians? Would Mr Gorbachev really have told the peoples of all these countries that they had no right to be in Nato because of private assurances given by a retired German foreign minister? And what would have been Mr Gorbachev’s recommended policy for the West? Should America have told the restored states of Eastern Europe that Nato membership was off the cards because, above their heads, the big powers had decided that such a course would tread on Russia’s toes?