NATO: Collective Defense From the Cold War to Today

The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949 by twelve founding members: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. It created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military and political alliance conceived, in the context of the emerging Cold War, to deter Soviet expansion into Western Europe by binding North American and European security together in a single collective framework. NATO's integrated military command structure took shape after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 heightened fears of Soviet aggression, with General Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed as the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe in 1951. Greece and Turkey joined in 1952, followed by West Germany in 1955, a step that directly prompted the Soviet Union to form the rival Warsaw Pact that same year.