The Beginning of NATO

During the blockade of Berlin, the Western Powers met with each other and created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. This alliance meant that any countries in it would help and fight side by side for each other. In other words, if one country was attacked, it would be like all the countries were being attacked, and they would all aid each other. The organization decided to base its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

The United States formally signed the agreement on April 4th, 1949. It was joined by the countries of Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, who also signed the agreement with the U.S. According to Halvard Lange, the Foreign Prime Minister of Norway at the time, from the book United Nations- Peacekeeping? by Edward Johnson, said that this was “a decisive turning point in the history of our continent.”

The Soviet Union when told about this organization, decided it should have a similar treaty. So, the arrangements for such a treaty were held again and in May of 1995, the Soviet Union officially signed the Warsaw Pact with its neighboring eastern nations. After word of this spread to the United States, Europe was pretty much broken up into two armies. But, the United States said that their treaty wasn’t meant so that the two sides could go to war again, and the Soviets agreed too.