Bangladesh, Dec. 30 -- A number of long-classified NSA files were recently made public, following a lawsuit that forced the declassification of memoranda of conversation between US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the early 2000s.

These documents, now accessible, offer a rare, quite unfiltered look at how Washington and Moscow actually spoke behind closed doors at a crucial juncture in post–Cold War history. As a matter of fact, they also cast serious doubt on a number of Western narratives that have become almost dogma, particularly regarding NATO expansion, Ukraine, missile defense, and Russias alleged perennial hostility toward the West.

The first memorandum, dated June 16, 2001, records Bush and...