Реферат: NATO Essay Research Paper The North Atlantic

NATO Essay, Research Paper

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been a silent partner on the world

stage for more than half of the century and the most successful

political-military alliance in history. The United Nations and their

peacekeeping efforts have had the spotlight for the past few years. However the

driving force behind any successful agreement or, if needed, action on the part

of several countries has been because of the strong foundation and experience of

NATO and its members. The following report will chronicle the events leading up

to the creation of NATO, its first decade, the constant struggle with communism

in the decades that proceed, and finally the challenges for NATO today and in

the future. 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

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