This was Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, or SHAPE, with US General Dwight D. NATO soon gained a consolidated command structure with a military Headquarters based in the Parisian suburb of Rocquencourt, near Versailles. The effect upon the Alliance was dramatic. This changed when growing worries about Soviet intentions culminated in the Soviet detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949 and in the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. While the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty had created Allies, it had not created a military structure that could effectively coordinate their actions. We keep the security forces to defend a way of life. We do not keep security establishments merely to defend property or territory or rights abroad or at sea. Article 3 laid the foundation for cooperation in military preparedness between the Allies, and Article 2 allowed them some leeway to engage in non-military cooperation. Significantly, Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty had important purposes not immediately germane to the threat of attack. In the Treaty's renowned Article 5, the new Allies agreed "an armed attack against one or more of them… shall be considered an attack against them all" and that following such an attack, each Ally would take "such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force" in response. In the end, it was determined that only a truly transatlantic security agreement could deter Soviet aggression while simultaneously preventing the revival of European militarism and laying the groundwork for political integration.Īccordingly, after much discussion and debate, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed on 4 April, 1949. With this in mind, several Western European democracies came together to implement various projects for greater military cooperation and collective defence, including the creation of the Western Union in 1948, later to become the Western European Union in 1954. The heroism of the Berlin Airlift provided future Allies with some solace, but privation remained a grave threat to freedom and stability. Then, in reaction to the democratic consolidation of West Germany, the Soviets blockaded Allied-controlled West Berlin in a bid to consolidate their hold on the German capital. In February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with covert backing from the Soviet Union, overthrew the democratically elected government in that country. In addition, Communists aided by the Soviet Union were threatening elected governments across Europe. In the German city of Hamburg alone, half a million people were homeless. Millions of orphans wandered the burnt-out shells of former metropolises. In some areas, infant mortality rates were one in four. Refugee camps and rationing dominated daily life. Approximately 36.5 million Europeans had died in the conflict, 19 million of them civilians. The aftermath of World War II saw much of Europe devastated in a way that is now difficult to envision. In fact, the Alliance’s creation was part of a broader effort to serve three purposes: deterring Soviet expansionism, forbidding the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent, and encouraging European political integration.
It is often said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded in response to the threat posed by the Soviet Union.
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