None of the former Warsaw Pact states and the Baltics joined NATO because "America has some say". They joined to acquire a security umbrella while the door was still open, knowing it would eventually close as Russia rebuilt its power. It was clear that Russia would seek to restore as much of its former empire as possible when it started the Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Chechen conflicts in the '90s and tried to keep puppet governments in power in Ukraine and Georgia in 2003 and 2004.