Milestones: 1945–1952 - Office of the Historian
Milestones: 1945–1952
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 1949
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United States,                     Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security                     against the Soviet Union.
Signing of the NATO Treaty
NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into                     outside of the Western Hemisphere. After the destruction of the Second World                     War, the nations of Europe struggled to rebuild their economies and ensure their                     security. The former required a massive influx of aid to help the war-torn                     landscapes re-establish industries and produce food, and the latter required                     assurances against a resurgent Germany or incursions from the Soviet Union. The                     United States viewed an economically strong, rearmed, and integrated Europe as                     vital to the prevention of communist expansion across the continent. As a                     result, Secretary of State George Marshall proposed a program of large-scale                     economic aid to Europe. The resulting European Recovery Program, or Marshall Plan , not only                     facilitated European economic integration but promoted the idea of shared                     interests and cooperation between the United States and Europe. Soviet refusal                     either to participate in the Marshall Plan or to allow its satellite states in                     Eastern Europe to accept the economic assistance helped to reinforce the growing                     division between east and west in Europe.
In 1947–1948, a series of events caused the nations of Western Europe to become                     concerned about their physical and political security and the United States to                     become more closely involved with European affairs. The ongoing civil war in                     Greece, along with tensions in Turkey, led President Harry S. Truman to assert that the United States                         would provide economic and military aid to both countries, as well as to any                         other nation struggling against an attempt at subjugation . A                     Soviet-sponsored coup in Czechoslovakia resulted in a communist government                     coming to power on the borders of Germany. Attention also focused on elections in Italy as the communist party had made significant gains among Italian voters.                     Furthermore, events in Germany also caused concern. The occupation and governance                     of Germany after the war had long been disputed, and in mid-1948, Soviet premier                     Joseph Stalin chose to test Western resolve by implementing a blockade against                     West Berlin, which was then under joint U.S., British, and French control but                     surrounded by Soviet-controlled East Germany. This Berlin Crisis brought the                     United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of conflict, although a massive                     airlift to resupply the city for the duration of the blockade helped to prevent                     an outright confrontation. These events caused U.S. officials to grow                     increasingly wary of the possibility that the countries of Western Europe might                     deal with their security concerns by negotiating with the Soviets. To counter                     this possible turn of events, the Truman Administration considered the                     possibility of forming a European-American alliance that would commit the United                     States to bolstering the security of Western Europe.
Signing of the Brussels Treaty
The Western European countries were willing to consider a collective security                     solution. In response to increasing tensions and security concerns,                     representatives of several countries of Western Europe gathered together to create a military alliance. Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and                     Luxembourg signed the Brussels Treaty in March, 1948. Their treaty provided                     collective defense; if any one of these nations was attacked, the others were                     bound to help defend it. At the same time, the Truman Administration instituted                     a peacetime draft, increased military spending, and called upon the historically                     isolationist Republican Congress to consider a military alliance with Europe. In                     May of 1948, Republican Senator Arthur H. Vandenburg proposed a resolution suggesting that the President seek a security treaty with                     Western Europe that would adhere to the United Nations charter but exist outside                     of the Security Council where the Soviet Union held veto power. The Vandenburg                     Resolution passed, and negotiations began for the North Atlantic Treaty.
In spite of general agreement on the concept behind the treaty, it took several                     months to work out the exact terms. The U.S. Congress had embraced the pursuit                     of the international alliance, but it remained concerned about the wording of                     the treaty. The nations of Western Europe wanted assurances that the United                     States would intervene automatically in the event of an attack, but under the                     U.S. Constitution the power to declare war rested with Congress. Negotiations                     worked toward finding language that would reassure the European states but not                     obligate the United States to act in a way that violated its own laws.                     Additionally, European contributions to collective security would require                     large-scale military assistance from the United States to help rebuild Western                     Europe’s defense capabilities. While the European nations argued for individual                     grants and aid, the United States wanted to make aid conditional on regional                     coordination. A third issue was the question of scope. The Brussels Treaty                     signatories preferred that membership in the alliance be restricted to the                     members of that treaty plus the United States. The U.S. negotiators felt there                     was more to be gained from enlarging the new treaty to include the countries of                     the North Atlantic, including Canada, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, and                     Portugal. Together, these countries held territory that formed a bridge between                     the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean, which would facilitate military                     action if it became necessary.
President Truman inspecting a tank produced under the Mutual Defense                         Assistance Program
The result of these extensive negotiations was the signing of the North Atlantic                     Treaty in 1949. In this agreement, the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark,                     France, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the                     United Kingdom agreed to consider attack against one an attack against all,                     along with consultations about threats and defense matters. This collective                     defense arrangement only formally applied to attacks against the signatories                     that occurred in Europe or North America; it did not include conflicts in                     colonial territories. After the treaty was signed, a number of the signatories                     made requests to the United States for military aid. Later in 1949, President                     Truman proposed a military assistance program, and the Mutual Defense Assistance                     Program passed the U.S. Congress in October, appropriating some $1.4 billion                     dollars for the purpose of building Western European defenses.
Soon after the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the outbreak                     of the Korean War led the                     members to move quickly to integrate and coordinate their defense forces through                     a centralized headquarters. The North Korean attack on South Korea was widely                     viewed at the time to be an example of communist aggression directed by Moscow,                     so the United States bolstered its troop commitments to Europe to provide                     assurances against Soviet aggression on the European continent. In 1952, the                     members agreed to admit Greece and Turkey to NATO and added the Federal Republic                     of Germany in 1955. West German entry led the Soviet Union to retaliate with its                     own regional alliance, which took the form of the Warsaw Treaty                         Organization and included the Soviet satellite states of Eastern                     Europe as members.
The collective defense arrangements in NATO served to place the whole of Western                     Europe under the American “nuclear umbrella.” In the 1950s, one of the first                     military doctrines of NATO emerged in the form of “massive retaliation,” or the                     idea that if any member was attacked, the United States would respond with a                     large-scale nuclear attack. The threat of this form of response was meant to                     serve as a deterrent against Soviet aggression on the continent. Although formed                     in response to the exigencies of the developing Cold War, NATO has lasted beyond                     the end of that conflict, with membership even expanding to include some former                     Soviet states. It remains the largest peacetime military alliance in the                     world.