In the years after World War II, a new threat encroached upon the leaders of Western Europe and their hopes of a stable peace. This threat would be from the growing dominance of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in Eastern Europe. The USSR had an increasing appetite for the smaller countries to her west. These aggressive demands for territory and the placing of installations in taken countries fueled the fears of many that the USSR was marching toward a third world war. Britain and France, not wanting to make the mistake again

of appeasing this new menace until it was too late, developed the Dunkirk Treaty in 1947. This treaty in essence pledged a common defense against any aggression. The USSR answered this by creating a European Communist organization called the Cominform and it rejected the European Recovery Program, which is commonly known as the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan, named for the US Secretary of State, was basically a financial bailout for the European nations. These nations were starving because of the slow and near stopping of the coal and agricultural industries after WWII. The US offered millions of dollars to all of Europe to aid in rebuilding for four reasons. First, Europe had been a great marketplace imports and exports for the US. Second, historically West Germany had been an industrial hub and needed to be brought back to tip-top shape to buffer the expanding USSR. Third, with its increasing mass the USSR was becoming a rival to the US. Lastly, without this aid Western Europe might look to the USSR for help, which would make life a lot tougher for American interests. The year of 1948 was pivotal for Europe. In February, the Communists in Prague staged a coup d’etat and the spring brought the beginning of the Cold War. Immediately after WWII, Germany was divided in to occupation zones by Britain, France, the US, and USSR. The capital of Germany at the time was Berlin, which happened to fall in the Soviet zone. The governing administration located in Berlin fell, because of the obvious reason of “too many cooks spoil the broth”. When this happened, the USSR demanded that Berlin become solely part of the Soviet zone, since its status as capital was ruined. The USSR enforced this ruling by blockading all land routes into and tried to force the other powers out of its respective sectors of Berlin. Eventually the Berlin Blockade was squelched by a military airlift that lasted the rest of the year. The city still remained divided and became known as East (Soviet controlled) and West Berlin. This transgression on the part of the USSR prompted negotiations between Western Europe, the US and Canada that resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty. The language of the North Atlantic Treaty originally consisted of its preamble and fourteen articles. The preamble states that members will promote common values and will “unite their efforts for a collective defense.” The key article of the North Atlantic Treaty is number five (it’s the one that inspired my title) it reads, “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them…shall be considered an attack against them all.” Another interesting article is the last one, number fourteen, and it calls for the deposition of the official copies of the treaty to be kept in the US Archives. The US already was establishing itself as the dominant member of an organization that is supposed to be based on equal responsibility. After the ratification of this treaty the structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began. The highest policy-making body in NATO is the North Atlantic Council, which met in Paris until 1967. The council composed of permanent delegates from all members was responsible for general policy, budgetary outlines, intergovernmental consultation and administrative actions. There are two main temporary committees that answer directly to the council. Those are the Secretariat, which handles non-military functions of the alliance (economic, scientific, cultural, and environmental issues), and the Military Committee or the Defense Planning Committee (DPC), which consists of the chiefs of staff of the various armed forces. They meet to discuss military policies, develop defense plans for their respective areas, determine the force requirements, and deploy and exercise the forces under their command. The forces directly below the DPC are the Allied Commands Europe (was first headed by Eisenhower), Atlantic, and Channel and the Regional Planning Gr

Some topics in this essay:
Balkans European, Talks SALT, Atlantic Treaty, WTO USSR, Korean War, Germany Berlin, Hungary Poland, Republic Yugoslavia, West Germany, Atlantic Council, north atlantic, north atlantic treaty, atlantic treaty, treaty organization, western europe, west germany, warsaw pact, cold war, east germany, korean war, eastern europe, atlantic treaty organization, beginning cold war, international dec 10,