North Atlantic Treaty Organization Is Formed

DATE April 4, 1949

Twelve democracies established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, originally as an association for mutual defense against the Soviet Union, to promote political integration in Europe, and to prevent further European nationalist militarism.

ALSO KNOWN AS NATO

LOCALE Western Europe; Washington, DC

Key Figures

• Dean Acheson(1893–1971), US secretary of state, 1949–53
• George C. Marshall (1880–1959), US secretary of state, 1947–49
• Joseph Stalin(Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; 1878–1953), general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Harry S. Truman (1884–1972), US president, 1945–53
• Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg(1884–1951), senator from Michigan and leader of the movement for a bipartisan foreign policy

Summary of Event

On April 4, 1949, the United States and eleven other nations (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal) signed a treaty of alliance establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), committing the signatories to the principle of common security on a regional basis. By joining, the United States under President Harry S. Truman took a precedent-shattering step; it had never before concluded a military alliance in peacetime with any European state. Participation in NATO meant that the United States had modified one of its oldest principles, which stemmed from the advice of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson: to avoid entangling alliances.

The genesis for such an alliance emerged from the Truman administration’s containment policy, with the fundamental objective of opposing Soviet expansionist efforts in Europe after World War II. The United States had committed itself in the 1947 Truman Doctrine to assisting European nations facing civil war or external threats from the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin.

Also in 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed the more ambitious European Recovery Program. Economic aid through this costly effort, better known as the Marshall Plan, greatly assisted the European economy after the program began in 1948. There was widespread belief in the United States, however, that Europe’s full economic and psychological recovery would not be possible until Europeans believed themselves safe from the threat of the Soviet Red Army as well as the potential for any other nationalist militarism on the continent. Thus, military security was essential for continued economic recovery.

Several major events in 1948 revealed the widening Cold War in Europe. A communist coup d’état in Czechoslovakia, the Soviet blockade of Berlin (lasting into 1949), and other Soviet actions convinced the Truman administration of the need for more extensive, long-term US involvement in Europe. Despite appeals from European leaders for the creation of a common front, however, Truman was not sufficiently confident of public and congressional support to move directly toward an alliance. In June, the Senate approved the Vandenberg Resolution, named for Senator Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg, the major proponent of the movement for a bipartisan foreign policy. The Senate vote of 64–4 declared support for US participation in regional arrangements for “continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid.” This pronouncement was interpreted by some as an attempt to limit presidential power in foreign affairs rather than as a sincere expression of support for collective security. Only after the presidential election of 1948 and cautious discussions with the principal European nations did the Truman administration act to move the United States away from its traditional isolationism.

In March, five European nations—Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg—signed the Brussels Pact, a fifty-year defensive alliance. Its terms obligated the signatories to come to the aid of any member attacked by an aggressor. The Brussels Pact nations invited the United States to participate, but there were numerous obstacles to concerted action at that time, even though the Vandenberg Resolution showed US interest in a mutual security system. In January 1949, more positive support was expressed in Truman’s inaugural address, which promised that the United States would contribute to the defense of friendly nations.

The United States began negotiations with a number of European states, with the aim of creating a cooperative system of military security against the presumed Soviet threat to Western Europe and encourage political integration. These discussions were criticized by some people in the United States and especially by communist authorities in Moscow. They accused the United States of undercutting the United Nations and jeopardizing world peace by forming a bloc of states for aggressive purposes. The United States answered this accusation by pointing out that article 51 of the UN Charter allowed for regional defense pacts, and that the proposed alliance clearly was defensive in character.

Dean Acheson, who succeeded Marshall as secretary of state in early 1949, believed that the United States should look to military and diplomatic arrangements to meet the communist challenge rather than rely upon the institutional procedures of the United Nations, which could be blocked by a Soviet veto. Negotiations achieved the desired objective of an expanded association of democratic states. In ceremonies in Washington, DC, on April 4, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed by representatives of twelve nations—Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United States, and the United Kingdom. They reaffirmed their support of the United Nations, vowed to cooperate in the maintenance of the stability and well-being of the North Atlantic region, and promised to work together for collective defense and the preservation of peace and general security.

Although the pact bound its members to settle international disputes by peaceful means, article 5 stated that “the Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.” Any attack would be met by armed force, if necessary. Each member state was permitted to adopt its own response to aggression after consultation with its allies. The treaty provided for the establishment of the NATO council, on which each of the signatory states was to be represented. The council created a defense committee and other departments to develop measures for the nations’ common defense. No signatory was committed absolutely to go to war, but the treaty was a powerful moral commitment to aid members threatened by aggression. The treaty was to be in effect for at least twenty years and could be renewed.

Senate hearings on the North Atlantic Treaty, while not endangering its chances of ratification by the United States, resulted in sometimes bitter debate concerning the wisdom of US involvement. Prominent national political figures, such as Senator Robert A. Taft, warned against the United States assuming major long-term responsibilities. These discussions revealed that the Truman administration could not anticipate all the military implications of the new alliance. Nevertheless, on July 21 the Senate approved the North Atlantic Treaty by a vote of 82–13. Eleven of the thirteen who voted “no” were Republicans, but both Republicans and Democrats supported the treaty. By late August, following ratification by member governments, NATO officially formed.

Significance

The adoption of the pact demonstrated the signatories’ willingness to make military commitments for their common security. Although NATO was never used in actual combat with the Soviet Union, its formation illustrated the unity of spirit and dedication of its Western democracies. Members who entered NATO later included Greece and Turkey (1952), West Germany (1955), and Spain (1981). NATO succeeded in fulfilling its primary purpose of creating a viable military counterweight to Soviet power.

With the collapse of communist systems in the states of Eastern Europe in 1989, followed by the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the relevance and functions of NATO had to be reconsidered. Despite the apparent end of the Cold War, all member governments agreed that the organization still served the primary objective of promoting stability within Europe, even as new problems (such as the Yugoslav civil war) appeared on the horizon. That conflict blossomed in the mid-1990s, eventually provoking a NATO response, primarily in the form of air strikes against Serbian forces, and NATO participation in the Dayton Peace Accord follow-up implementation.

When civil war broke out in Kosovo, NATO members circumvented the United Nations, making the decision to bomb Serbia for its refusal to sign an ultimatum to allow NATO peacekeepers to deploy in Kosovo and to permit Kosovo’s autonomy. NATO forces were prominent in the post-bombing period of Kosovo reconstruction. This event was unprecedented in NATO history, and required the organization to rethink its mission as a defense alliance. No NATO country was under attack; rather, NATO intervened in the domestic affairs of a nonmember state on humanitarian grounds.

NATO subsequently took yet another unprecedented step by undertaking military operations outside Europe, when in August 2003, it assumed responsibility for military and security operations in Afghanistan after the United States toppled the Taliban regime for its assumed complicity in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

Several East European states formerly associated with the Soviet Union applied during the 1990s for NATO membership, fearful of the possibility of a resurgence of Russian expansionism. Eventually, nine former communist countries of Eastern Europe or former Soviet Socialist Republics were admitted to NATO, after the organization decided to move forward with enlargements. These countries included Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, as well as the former Soviet Socialist Republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Slovenia, once a part of the former Yugoslavia, was also admitted, bringing NATO’s membership to twenty-six nations in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Between the late 2000s and the beginning of the 2020s, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia had also become members.

Moscow has viewed NATO enlargement with suspicion but has been in no position to prevent it. Even as NATO forces remained in Afghanistan into the 2010s, other threats to stability rose, including upon Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. In 2021, all NATO forces, which had been largely involved in supportive Afghan soldier training, controversially withdrew from Afghanistan.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, NATO immediately condemned the attack and offered support, including in the form of consultation as well as supplies and equipment, to Ukraine, which had long been a strategic NATO partner and had expressed a desire for membership beginning as early as 2008. Russia's invasion of Ukraine also directly led to the decision by Finland to seek NATO membership in 2022. The country had long desired to stay out of the military alliance, believing it was safer to remain independent. In April 2023, however, Finland officially joined NATO, significantly strengthening the alliance by doubling its land border with Russia. Similarly, Sweden, which had a long-running tradition of neutrality, also sought NATO membership and officially joined in March 2024. The inclusion of Finland and Sweden brought NATO membership to thirty-two countries.

NATO expansion amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict also magnified the strategic and logistical challenges facing the alliance. Beginning in early 2024, NATO undertook its largest defense exercise since the 1980s, involving ninety thousand troops. Member-states also increased their defense spending, with nearly all set to meet their voluntary 2 percent of GDP commitment in 2024, up from just eleven countries the year prior; notably, unequal defense spending among the allies had become a point of contention for some NATO critics, including former US president Donald Trump.

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