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This study compares two World War II allied military operations, VELVET and POINTBLANK, and draws lessons from them for the ROK-U.S. Alliance. The key finding is that the lack of transparency and openness in Russia's political system contributed to the difficulty in achieving cooperation between Russia and its democratic allies. Stalin feared that military and political interaction between Russian personnel and their Western counterparts might result in political contamination, and thus threaten political stability. This case stands in contrast to the successful collaboration between Great Britain and the United States in establishing a large number of military bases across Great Britain in order to implement the POINTBLANK air-bombing operation. In that case, despite friction and mutual suspicion between the two allies, Great Britain and the United States achieved cooperation by maintaining communication and openness toward each other. From these two historical cases of joint military operations among allies, this study infers the sources of conflict and cooperation between Korea and the United States, discusses theoretical implications, and more importantly proposes policy recommendations for the enhancement of the ROK-U.S. Alliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]