NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and Other Alliances
Only a few years after World War II ended, the Soviet Union dominated the Eastern European countries they had occupied during the war. Communist governments in those countries—buoyed by support and the direct influence of Stalin—subjected their people to the same suppression and economic system as the Soviet Union. Many Western European countries feared such a dominant communist presence on their doorstep.
Out of a desire to coordinate their defenses in case of a conflict with the Soviets, several Western nations created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in April 1949. The treaty pledged mutual support and cooperation within the alliance against conflicts and wars. Its original members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States. Membership in this Brussels-based organization expanded considerably in the decades after its founding.
The Soviet Union’s response to NATO was the Warsaw Pact, created in 1955. Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union were the original members. Warsaw Pact nations combined their armed forces and based their army leaders in Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union. These nations were known as the communist bloc.
Two countries with communist political systems successfully resisted Soviet control. Albania, located next to Greece, joined the Warsaw Pact but withdrew in 1968. It became more closely tied to China. Yugoslavia, under the authoritarian leadership of Marshall Josip Broz Tito, never joined the Warsaw Pact. In the 1990s, ethnic divisions caused Yugoslavia to break apart into several countries, including Slovenia, Serbia, and Croatia.
Other treaty organizations formed in an attempt to halt the spread of communism in other regions:
• In 1954, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
• The Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) was an anti-Soviet treaty organization formed by Great Britain, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Turkey to prevent the spread of Communism in the Middle East. The United States was not a full member, but it joined CENTO’S military committee.
During the Cold War, the United States formed alliances with more than 40 states. It was sometimes easier for the United States to influence and negotiate through these smaller alliances than through the United Nations.