NATO HQ

The Berlin blockade provided compelling evidence that in order to deter the Soviets from further aggression, an alliance was necessary between nations of Western Europe and the United States. On April 4, 1949, the foreign ministers of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States formally signed the North Atlantic Treaty. The key paragraph was Article 5. It stated that "an armed attack against one or more of the European signatories or the North American signatories, would be considered an attack against all of them".

After World War II, it was not a given for the United States and Western European countries to develop a common defense. The decision to resupply Berlin with an airlift was the first genuine commitment to defending Europe by the United States. It left to a rethinking of strategy. The Soviet land army was many times the size of what was left of the US army in Europe after the US demobilized. The Soviet Coup in Czechoslovakia further unsettled the Europeans and brought about a further reassessment. There was a true fear of the possibility of war. General Clay wrote at the time, “ For many months based on logical analysis, I have felt and held that war was unlikely for at least ten years. Within the last few weeks, I have fled a subtle change in Soviet attitude, which I cannot define but gives me a feeling it might come in dramatic suddenness.

The feeling pushed Congress to pass the Marshall Plan and the European allies to pass the Brussels Pact, with was a treaty to bound the UK, France, and the Benelux counties to work together in case of a renewal of German aggression. However, even as the Brussels Pact was being signed, it was clear that the threat was not from Germany but rather from the Soviets.

British Prime Minister Bevin gave a speech to parliament on January 22, 1948, in which he pledged that Great Britain would work with her neighbors in Europe to develop a common defense strategy. Accordingly, secret talks were begun between the United States, United Kindom, and Canada to develop an Atlantic defense strategy. On July 6, 1948, the talks were opened to other European powers.

The idea that the United States would enter into a treaty arrangement for the collective defense was uncharted territory and went against some of the central axioms of US Foreign policy until World war II. NATO was sold to the American people and to Congress, which had to ratify it as a means of protecting the Atlantic. It took three months to pass Congress, but it did, and the United States became a founding member of NATO- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization.