Yes, cockup fits the evidence far better than conspiracy. the US wasn't really interested in the balkan countries, I got the feeling that they felt that as they were ex-Yugoslavian, ie fairly firendly anyway, having them sign up was a shoo-in. They were fixated on wooing Poland, Czechoslovakia (as then) and th Baltic states. This was a distraction they didn't want or need.

The US had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the "peacekeeping" efforts, there was a lot of cross-pond diplomatic effort to bring the US onside at the time.

Also I well remember the dismay at the Vance-Owen plan within W europe; if the US take the blame for de-railing it, then such a move received widespread support. I'm just not convinced they did it deliberately.

As for NATO having free reign, I think that was mere opportunism to see if they could wean newly freed countries into the US sphere of influence. It wasn't intended to force NATO on anyone, simply remove an impediment if the countries wanted to - naively or not that was my reading of it.

keep to the Fen Causeway