4/4【历史上的今天】NATO与冷战

美国历史上的今天

NATO

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When: April 4, 1949

What: The United States and 11 other nations establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense pact aimed at containing possible Soviet aggression against Western Europe.

Why significant: NATO stood as the main U.S.-led military alliance against the Soviet Union throughout the duration of the Cold War.

Relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union began to deteriorate rapidly in 1948. There were heated disagreements over the postwar status of Germany, with the Americans insisting on German recovery and eventual rearmament, and the Soviets steadfastly opposing such actions. In January 1949, President Harry S. Truman warned in his State of the Union Address that the forces of democracy and communism were locked in a dangerous struggle. NATO was formed as a result.

The Soviet Union condemned NATO as a warmongering alliance and responded by setting up the Warsaw Pact (a military alliance between the Soviet Union and its Eastern Europe satellites) in 1955.

Tags: WW II, Cold War, President Harry S. Truman, Marshall Plan, NATO, Warsaw Pact