75 years NATO: By a “it saves” in the Cold War, to the force of global security

For us, war is not inevitable”, Truman said. “Burrat with courage and vision can determine its destiny. They can choose captivity or freedom, war, or peace. I have no doubt what they will choose”.

Seventy-five years later, this week, the organisation that was founded by the Treaty, NATO will mark the moment when the 12 allies signed the pledge of transatlantic relations and address the Soviet threat to peace and security in Europe.

After seeing the continent's division from the Iron curtain, 12 countries of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Holland, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States agreed to collective protection, a principle that constitutes NATO core today.

Determined at Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, the principle stresses that if one signatory country is attacked, it will be considered an attack on all other signatories.

Of course, during the conference it will be stressed that Article 5 has been put into use only once after the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Ironically, during NATO's establishment, the United States was among the most skeptical of the Treaty and Article 5.

For the U.S., whose nuclear guarantee would then give the Treaty weight, the automatic proclamation of war was a concern, because the American Constitution gives Congress only the competence to declare war, says John Dan, historian of NATO, simultaneously professor at the American Army War College, in a campaign for Radio Free Europe.

But Washington had previously signed the Rio Pact in 1947, which provided mutual assistance along the Western Hemisphere but did not include any military commitments. Danny says this opened the door for five European partners ♫ Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and United Kingdom to talk to the US about common European defence.

“ “This was British creation. The US wanted economic rebirth from Europe”.

Although the American public was told that the Treaty was a way of opposing communism, Danny says a “secret rationalisation” for the alliance came from the American need for stability and economic success in Europe.

In Truman's words, NATO would be <x0 saved that will enable us... to ensure a fuller and happier life for all our citizens”

Danny claims that the 1948 events a stamp in Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Berlin blockade had alarmed the US for the impact of instability on the European economy, and “changed minds in Washington”.

But, the Treaty was written “the way we Americans asked for”, Danny says. He did not predict automatic proclamations of war, and subsequently provided two-party support to Congress.

At the beginning of 1949, a draft treaty was set up, to be signed on April 4th in Washington, at a meeting of the heads of state of 12 founding countries. The Soviet Union was announced that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation meant the joint response to the protection of its members.

As Washington is getting ready to be host to NATO Summit, from July 9th to July 11th, and to mark the alliance's 75th anniversary, the importance of Article 5 and NATO's achievements were on the agenda of several organisations made by non-governmental organisations at the US helm.

Some speakers stressed that unity NATO was tested at the end of the Cold War, when the alliance no longer faced the Soviet threat that Max Bergmann, director of the European Programme for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), says it was “founded to address”.

Other speakers remembered that some policymakers and politicians then argued that NATO was no longer necessary, while others preferred adapting to the new world order.

Philip Dickinson, deputy director of the Atlantic Council's Transatlantic Security Initiative, says that the end of the Cold War prompted “a real change in NATO's global position and purpose”.

NATO established its Partnership for Peace programme during that period, inviting Russia in 1994 to join it -- an agreement lasting 20 years -- until Moscow illegally annexed Crime in 2014. Then came two major waves of enlargement after the Cold War, 1999 and 2004, when several European and Baltic countries joined the organisation.

The alliance later shifted the focus on international operations, terrorism and crisis management. NATO allies also launched peacekeeping missions across the North Atlantic, including in Iraq and Kosovo. Besides preserving peace, NATO has stepped up co-operation with countries across the North Atlantic, especially in the Indo-Vejor region.

Four out of 35 NATO partner countries -- Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea -- have been invited to the alliance's discussions about threats at Indo-Peacekeeping at the upcoming summit.

Besides Indo-Peacekeeping, most of the other 31 NATO partner countries are from Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

All NATO members and partners, except Afghanistan, Belarus and Russia, are invited to attend the summit. Georgia has also received an invitation, despite the May 28th adoption of what many people call a <x0 law for foreign agents” inspired by Russia and Ukraine, which is expected to be included in NATO's next expansion.

Ukraine's large-scale invasion by Russia and new regional threats to NATO are expected to be the main topic on the summit, but it will also become clear that in the 75 years of existence, the alliance has been developed to confront more than just Soviet threat, whose prevention was why it was established.

Despite the evolution, the words Truman said in 1949 still stand: Our “method of achieving international unity, through the voluntary unification of various countries dedicated to a common cause, is an effective step towards establishing order in our troubled world”. / REL