Vandenburg proposed a resolution suggesting that the President seek a security treaty with Western Europe that would adhere to the United Nations charter but exist outside of the Security Council where the Soviet Union held veto power. In spite of general agreement on the concept behind the treaty, it took several months to work out the exact terms.
The U. Congress had embraced the pursuit of the international alliance, but it remained concerned about the wording of the treaty. The nations of Western Europe wanted assurances that the United States would intervene automatically in the event of an attack, but under the U. Constitution the power to declare war rested with Congress. Negotiations worked toward finding language that would reassure the European states but not obligate the United States to act in a way that violated its own laws.
While the European nations argued for individual grants and aid, the United States wanted to make aid conditional on regional coordination. A third issue was the question of scope. The Brussels Treaty signatories preferred that membership in the alliance be restricted to the members of that treaty plus the United States. Together, these countries held territory that formed a bridge between the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean, which would facilitate military action if it became necessary.
The result of these extensive negotiations was the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in In this agreement, the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom agreed to consider attack against one an attack against all, along with consultations about threats and defense matters.
This collective defense arrangement only formally applied to attacks against the signatories that occurred in Europe or North America; it did not include conflicts in colonial territories.
The eight member countries of the Warsaw Pact pledged the mutual defense of any member who was attacked. Relations among the treaty signatories were based upon mutual non-intervention in the internal affairs of the member countries, respect for national sovereignty, and political independence. However, almost all governments of those member states were indirectly controlled by the Soviet Union. While the Warsaw Pact was established as a balance of power or counterweight to NATO, there was no direct confrontation between them.
Instead, the conflict was fought on an ideological basis. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and their integration into the respective blocs. Its largest military engagement was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia with the participation of all Pact nations except Romania. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Search for:. When Soviet leaders found it necessary to use military force to put down revolts in Hungary in and in Czechoslovakia in , for example, they presented the action as being carried out by the Warsaw Pact rather than by the USSR alone.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. However, the relationship between the two nations was a tense one. But despite its importance, NATO has only invoked Article 5 once in its history—in response to the terrorist attacks Berlin, the German capital city, was located deep in the Soviet zone, but it was also divided into four In June , the simmering tensions between the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from to Though he largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, the Cuban Missile Crisis began after he positioned nuclear weapons 90 miles from An arms race occurs when two or more countries increase the size and quality of military resources to gain military and political superiority over one another.
Thememo was brief—just a few hundred words. The memo was polite. Live TV. This Day In History.
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