[lumberjack]

Americans won't know this history. They also don't know that weak countries prefer to remain neutral rather than join NATO. Joining NATO also makes you a target. US tried hard to get everyone to join, including a fair bit of meddling in nation politics. Despite this neither Finland nor Sweden are in NATO.

[jabl]

Finland not being in NATO is more a result of it's successful strategy of surviving the cold war by sitting on the fence playing both sides [1]. Since the collapse of the USSR and Finland joining the EU the situation is quite different, but old habits, particularly successful ones, are hard to shake.

[1] One can of course speculate what would have happened if the cold war would have turned hot. Would ostensibly neutral Finland have been left alone, or would both NATO and the Warsaw Pact have nuked it just to be sure. Or would the massive nuclear strikes on the nearby Murmansk and Leningrad areas have caused such massive fallout that it would have been a moot point anyway?