NATO and The Warsaw Pact

The U.S. was the first nation to create the atomic bomb. The U.S. was the first nation to use the atomic bomb. The U.S. seemed to control the entire fate of the inferior world after the close of World War II. They held the most controversial, and devastating weapon ever known to man at their fingertips. It only took an order, and any city could be wiped from existence. But, what do you think happens when another nation successfully tested its own atomic bomb? Most would assume war, but thankfully that wasn’t the case: in its place, was a cold tension between possessors of the deadly weapon. Neither side dared to make a move, because if one were to act with their bombs, the other would do likewise. This tension soon became a fierce rivalry and competition between nations to become the greatest, in fields such as industry, technology (like the Space Race), military, and ideology. Hence the tension and war of ideals, but no physical conflict, the term “Cold War” has been most widely accepted among historians.


The Cold War saw the creation of two organizations, both of which dealt with their member’s security. The first to be formed was NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Actually, NATO didn’t exactly begin as the “NATO” we know: it was actually the Western European Union. It technically began with the signing of the Dunkirk Treaty in March 4th, 1947, providing a mutual relationship between signed nations; the primary purpose of the treaty was to protect the nations in case the Germans were to break the economic and militaristic limitations placed on them and take a second stab at controlling Europe. A year later, on March 17th, 1948, an abridged version of the Dunkirk Treaty was written and signed. It was called the Treaty of Brussels, and its main highlight was the creation of an organization called the Brussels Treat Organization, soon to become known as the Western European Union. Its signatories included the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg. Similar to the alliances formed in World War I, the Treaty of Brussels created the outline that if a nation were to attack any of the allied nations, the members of the organization would come together to support and defend their comrade. When the USSR’s power became more and more prevalent in the east, the nations of the Western European Union did not fear the Germans nearly as much as they had previously. As Europe had done in the preamble to World War I, it had subconsciously divided into two camps: the Soviet Union, and Western Europe. Western Europe were not capable in their current state to hope to resist the soviets, so they turned to the next nation who had about as much power as their opposition: the U.S. The U.S. itself feared the developments in the Soviet Union as well, so they were quick to accept the negotiations made by Britain. To include America, and also Canada into their union, a new treaty was written. This was the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washing, DC 1949, and giving rise to NATO.

There were numerous objectives that the NATO was designed to resolve and fulfill. Its most important was providing a mutual security for all its members. If a nation were to lead a sudden attack against any of the nations secured by NATO, the rest of the NATO nations would become a coalition against the aggressor. This became increasingly important as the Cold War progressed, because the Soviet Union’s military power was expanding at an alarming rate, to a point that it almost matches the power of the United States. Another purpose of the NATO was expressed through the Marshal Plan, an operation that outlined how Western Europe would be restored after the devastation of World War II. The restoration of the ruined countries helped for the relationship between the allied nations to level out, allowing them to become more accustomed with their allies. The last purpose of NATO was to prevent the spread of the Soviet’s communism into surrounding estates.

The Soviets did not sit and watch as Western Europe joined together to impede the spread of communism. For the five years after NATO’s initiation, the Soviets had viewed the organization as a threat to their security, but when NATO had accepted Western Germany into the organization through the Paris Peace Treaties on May 9th, 1955, they moved swiftly to form their own alliance. On May 14th, 1955, in Warsaw, Poland, the second alliance of the Cold War was established through the Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance (shortened to Warsaw Pact). Its members included the Soviet Union (who exerted the most control over the alliance) and its satellite nations, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Albania. Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolay Bulganin, the newly elected leaders of the Soviet Union, took advantage of this time to position troops within the satellite nations to empower their authority their.