American Participation in NATO

 North Atlantic Alliance Organization was founded in 1949 by 12 countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the UK, and the USA. Greece and Turkey joined NATO in 1952, Germany (German Federative Republic) in 1955 and Spain in 1982.

The agreement that was signed between the members of NATO in Washington, April, 4 1949 assumed mutual assistance and collective security, primary against the threat of the Soviet Union. It was the first union of after war period in the history, made by the USA and which assumed the union of capitalist countries.

The main reason for NATO creation were very aggressive relations between the USA and the USSR, especially after Warsaw Pact, or a pact that united all communistic regimes in Eastern Europe with the head of the USSR.

The results of Warsaw pact were the following: besides mutual assistance in the sphere of economics, science and education the countries participants agreed the USSR to place its troops on their territories. Romania, Poland, DDR (eastern Germany), Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia agreed to dislocate Soviet troops on their territories.

As the result a Soviet threat was created to the countries of Western Europe who were rather weak and could not have anything similar to individual defense after the WW2. In March 1948 five European countries signed Brussels treaty, which was the basis for NATO foundation a year later.

The main principle of NATO is its fifth article, which says that all participants agree that military attack against one of the them is considered to be the attack against all of the countries participants. NATO’s principles were developed in the USA in accordance to the 51st article of UN’s rules that assumed the right to create organizations for collective security. This right also makes the nations to participate in economical, political and social integration and mutual assistance.

NATO’ as military forces were formed in 1950 as a feedback to the events in Korea that turned into war in June 1950.

Korean war or the aggression of North Korea was considered to be a part communist intervention in the east. The war ended in 1953 on the border of North Korea with South Korea on the 47th parallel the place where it had started 3 years before. The main body that directs NATO’s policy is the NATO’s council, which is situated in Brussels (before 1967 all the meetings were held in Paris). Every country-participant of NATO provides a representative f an embassy level, and the meetings are held at least once a week.

NATO played an important role in the solution of different conflicts that took place in the world starting from war in Korea and ending military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. If during the years of the cold war the biggest attention was turned to resistance to the USSR military system based in Eastern Europe, than in the years of after cold war period it’s mostly directed on the preserving peace and stability in the world.

Probably the coldest relations between the USA and USSR started during Kennedy’s office as disagreements with Soviets led to the missile crisis in Cuba. That was a turning point in the relations between two countries that resulted into two decades of real “Cold War”.

Scared by the dislocation of military bases in Turkey and Greece Soviet ministry of defense on the head with country’s leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to locate Soviet missiles on the island of Cuba, where new revolutionary government was loyal to communistic ideology and was financed by the Soviets. Fortunately missile crisis was solved, but it put the seeds of more distrust and mutual fear both in NATO countries and countries of Warsaw Pact.