Реферат: NATO Essay Research Paper The North Atlantic

policies of the pact. The first was the Political Consultative Committee, which

handled all activities except military, and the Unified Command of Pact Armed

Forces, which had authority over the troops assigned to certain members. On

paper you can see the similarities, but the USSR rule with absolute dominance.

When members tried to break away or try to join NATO, the consequences were

terrifying. In 1956, Hungary tried to withdrawal from the WTO; the USSR took

unilateral military action against the revolt killing 200,000 people. Another

member state, Czechoslovakia attempted to leave and was swiftly forced back by a

soviet invasion. Albania seemed to find a way out, because of their alliance

with China and some other ideological reasons, and broke off in 1968. With the

USSR?s undeniable stranglehold on its neighboring countries in place, the race

began for total superiority on the global scene over the US and her allies. The

main gauge for this was nuclear weapon advances and stockpiles. Who could have

the biggest and best in the shortest amount of time and who would dare to use it

first? These pressing questions tainted the next three decades and worried some

of the other NATO members that the US wouldn?t honor their pledge if the USSR

were to do the unspeakable to Western Europe. NATO members tried to keep a

positive perspective, but several events caused a sense of dissatisfaction of

its worth by the end of the sixties. To begin the decade off the USSR officially

blockaded their side of Berlin by erecting the ?wall?. At first the Berlin

Wall consisted only of barbed wire, but people were ?escaping? to East

Germany, so an actual concrete wall was constructed with all the bells and

whistles, like checkpoints with armed guards and minefields. The people of East

Germany were prisoners in their own country and were not allowed to contact or

visit family. In addition, the withdrawal of France, one of the founding

members, in 1966 by President Charles de Gaulle sent shock waves through the

organization. Although they continued to contribute to the alliance, they left

the governing duties to the other members. Also NATO was pressured by the

smaller nation-states to be come members and that would take a lot of funding,