![]() ![]() Unhappy with its role in the organization, France opted to withdraw from military participation in NATO in 1966 and did not return until 1995. ![]() Greece and Turkey were admitted in 1952, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) in 1955 and Spain in 1982. ![]() NATO formed the backbone of the West’s military bulwark against the USSR and its allies for the next 40 years, with its membership growing larger over the course of the Cold War era. The original membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) consisted of Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States. had formally tied its security to that of nations in Europe-the continent that had served as the flash point for both world wars. For the first time since the 1700s, the U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson (1893-1971) put his signature on the document, it reflected an important change in American foreign policy. It was primarily a security pact, with Article 5 stating that a military attack against any of the signatories would be considered an attack against them all. The discussions between the Western nations concluded on April 4, 1949, when the foreign ministers of 12 countries in North America and Western Europe gathered in Washington, D.C., to sign the North Atlantic Treaty. That development was not well received by leaders of the Russian Federation and became a source of post-Cold War tension between the East and the West. ![]() The process gained new urgency in June of that year, when the USSR cut off ground access to Berlin, forcing the U.S., Britain and France to airlift supplies to their sectors of the German city, which had been partitioned between the Western Allies and the Soviets following World War II.ĭid you know? NATO continued its existence beyond the Cold War era and gained new member nations in Eastern Europe during the late 1990s. leaders agreed to join discussions aimed at forming a joint security agreement with their European allies. In February 1948, a coup sponsored by the Soviet Union overthrew the democratic government of Czechoslovakia and brought that nation firmly into the Communist camp. Events of the following year prompted American leaders to adopt a more militaristic stance toward the Soviets. ![]()
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