NATO at 75
American Legion, October 2024
Rather than scaring NATO to death, Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has scared NATO back to life. For years, the alliance had been drifting. But with Putin trying to rebuild the Russian Empire, there’s broader support – and clearer need – for NATO than at any time since the Cold War.
ORIGINS After World War II, Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg forged a mutual-defense pact. Prime Minister Paul-Henry Spaak of Belgium warned any alliance without the U.S. would be “without practical value.”
1946-1948 Moscow violates agreements made at Yalta to hold free elections in postwar Europe, supports communist forces in the Greek Civil War, pressures Turkey for basing rights, topples Czechoslovakia’s democratic government, and blockades West Berlin. America and Britain respond with the Berlin Airlift.
1949 The U.S., Britain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Portugal sign the North Atlantic Treaty. The heart of the treaty is Article V declaring, “an armed attack against one or more ... shall be considered an attack against them all.” The Senate ratifies the treaty 82-13.
1950 Moscow greenlights the invasion of South Korea, supplies Pyongyang with weapons and sends advisers to support the assault. NATO members Britain, Canada, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and the U.S. – plus future members Turkey and Greece – send troops to defend South Korea.
1951 NATO opens its military headquarters near Paris. Taking the reins as NATO commander, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower calls NATO “the last remaining chance for the survival of Western civilization.”
GROWTH NATO has been growing since it was born – not by conquest but by consent, not by the force of arms of its members but by the desire for security of its aspirants. It’s all there in Article X: The allies may “by unanimous agreement invite any other European state in a position to further the principles of this treaty.”
1952 Greece and Turkey join NATO.
1955 West Germany joins NATO.
The USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania create the Warsaw Pact. The bloc fields 100 divisions, NATO 25.
1956 Soviet tanks crush Hungary’s efforts to form a multiparty government.
HEADACHES In its second decade, NATO began dealing with internal problems and external challenges.
1959 After Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev boasts about his army’s conventional edge in Germany, Eisenhower, now president, warns, “If you attack us in Germany, there will be nothing conventional about our response.”
To commemorate NATO’s 10th birthday, Bing Crosby records “The NATO Song,” which cheers, “NATO went on guard and free men ceased to yield. We live again in peace and strength behind the NATO shield.”
1960 Turkey’s army seizes power.
1961 Spurred by an exodus from Eastern Europe, the Soviets and East Germans wall off West Berlin.
1962 President John Kennedy in West Berlin declares, “Ich bin ein Berliner!”
1966 French President Charles de Gaulle pulls France out of NATO’s military command and insists that NATO’s headquarters – and all U.S. military personnel – leave France. Secretary of State Dean Rusk responds, “Does that include the dead Americans in military cemeteries?”
1967 NATO headquarters moves to Brussels.
The Greek army seizes power.
1968 Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia, ending the Prague Spring.
1974 Greece supports a coup in Cyprus; Turkey occupies Northern Cyprus.
1975 Under the Helsinki Accords, Western and Warsaw Pact nations formally recognize the post-World War II political-territorial settlement.
CROSSROADS As the 1980s approached, NATO was at a crossroads: continue to give ground to Moscow, or return to deterrence and answer Moscow’s aggression. A president and a pope helped the alliance choose the right course.
1979 Moscow deploys SS-20 missiles in Central Europe.
Soviet troops invade Afghanistan.
Visiting Poland, Pope John Paul II declares, “There can be no just Europe without the independence of Poland,” exhorting his countrymen: “Do not be afraid.”
1980 Led by Lech Walesa, Polish workers form the Solidarity trade union. Warsaw institutes martial law.
Turkey’s military retakes power.
1982 Spain joins NATO.
1983 Washington deploys Pershing II missiles in response to Moscow’s SS-20 deployment.
President Ronald Reagan labels the USSR “an evil empire.”
Misreading NATO’s Able Archer exercise as the first move in a preemptive war, Moscow nearly launches a preemptive strike.
1985 Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Geneva, the first of five summits that end the Cold War.
1987 In Berlin, Reagan demands, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Reagan and Gorbachev sign the INF Treaty, the first treaty eliminating an entire class of nuclear missiles.
November 1989 The Berlin Wall falls.
NEW MISSION President George H.W. Bush declares, “Let Europe be whole and free. To the founders of the alliance, this aspiration was a distant dream ... now it’s the new mission of NATO.”
1990 Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia declare independence from the USSR.
East and West Germany are unified. Germany remains in NATO.
The CFE Treaty is signed, sweeping huge numbers of conventional weapons from Europe.
February 1991 The Warsaw Pact dissolves.
April 1991 Georgia declares independence from the USSR.
June 1991 Boris Yeltsin wins Russia’s first popular presidential election.
July 1991 Bush and Gorbachev sign the START treaty, reducing nuclear arsenals.
August 1991 Hardliners launch an unsuccessful coup against Gorbachev. Ukraine and Belarus declare independence.
December 1991 Gorbachev resigns; the USSR formally ends.
EASTWARD With ethnic warfare flaring in the Balkans, many observers called on NATO to play a stabilizing role. “There is an antidote to chaos,” Reagan observed. “Its name is NATO.”
1993 Walesa, now Poland’s president, warns, “If Russia again adopts an aggressive foreign policy, that aggression will be directed toward Ukraine and Poland.”
1994 President Bill Clinton declares, “The question is no longer whether NATO will take on new members, but when.”
Russia agrees to “respect the independence … sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine.” Ukraine surrenders its nuclear arsenal.
1995 NATO conducts airstrikes to protect Bosnian-Muslims from Serbian attacks. NATO and Russia share peacekeeping duties in postwar Bosnia.
1997 NATO and Russia renounce the “threat or use of force against each other.”
March-June 1999 Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary join NATO. NATO launches airstrikes to protect Kosovo from Serbia. After Belgrade agrees to ceasefire terms, Russian forces attempt to seize an airfield in Kosovo. When NATO commander U.S. Gen. Wes Clark orders British Gen. Mike Jackson to block the Russians, Jackson defiantly answers, “I’m not going to start World War III for you.”
December 1999 Yeltsin resigns and installs Putin as Russia’s president.
ANOTHER CROSSROADS After outlasting the Soviet Empire, wading into Eastern Europe and laying the foundations of a Europe “whole and free,” NATO would be forced to confront a range of new and old threats in a new century.
2001 Al-Qaida attacks U.S. territory. For the first time, NATO invokes Article V. NATO deploys planes to U.S. airspace.
Washington and Moscow sign the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, slashing their deployed nuclear missiles to around 2,000 warheads apiece.
2003 Taking command of Afghanistan operations, NATO continues to struggle waging war by committee: Italian fighter-bombers deploy without bombs. Germany requires its troops to warn enemy forces – in three languages – before engaging. Non-NATO members Australia, Georgia and Sweden contribute more troops than several NATO members.
Germany and France oppose U.S.-British efforts to secure U.N. authorization to disarm Iraq. Turkey blocks U.S. forces from transiting Turkish territory into Iraq. Eighteen NATO members (plus Ukraine and Georgia) send troops to Iraq.
2004 Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO.
2005 Putin declares, “The demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the (20th) century.”
2006 NATO urges members to invest at least 2% of GDP in defense. Only eight members reach that target by 2022.
2007 Putin claims NATO’s growth violates post-Cold War agreements, calling it “a serious provocation.” Gorbachev counters, “The topic of NATO expansion was not discussed” as the Cold War thawed.
Russia-based hackers launch crippling cyberattacks against Estonia.
April 2008 Germany and France block Ukraine and Georgia from NATO membership. Though NATO agrees that “these countries will become members of NATO,” no timetable is set. Due to disputes over Macedonia’s name, Greece blocks Macedonia from joining NATO. NATO endorses U.S. missile-defense deployments in Eastern Europe.
August 2008 Russia invades Georgia. The U.S. Air Force transports thousands of Georgian troops from Iraq to Georgia, likely preventing Russia from taking Tbilisi.
2009 President Barack Obama cancels missile-defense deployments in Eastern Europe. Warsaw calls the decision “catastrophic.”
Albania and Croatia join NATO.
France returns to NATO’s military-command structure.
2010 Washington and Moscow agree to New START, further reducing nuclear arsenals.
2011 NATO enforces a U.N. no-fly zone over Libya.
Washington deactivates the Navy’s North Atlantic-focused 2nd Fleet.
2012 Washington deactivates the Army’s Germany-based V Corps.
2014 Russia seizes Ukraine’s Crimea and arms separatists in eastern Ukraine. Washington sends “nonlethal aid.” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko jabs, “One cannot win a war with blankets.”
Russia violates the INF Treaty and CFE Treaty.
NATO allies Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Netherlands and the U.S. conduct airstrikes against ISIS.
WARNINGS As the 2020s neared, two U.S. presidents expressed frustration with NATO. Yet NATO would again prove its worth. “If we did not have NATO,” Gen. James Mattis intoned in 2017, “we would need to create it.”
2016 NATO establishes battlegroups to deter Russian attacks against Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland.
Obama tells Britain’s prime minister, “You have to pay your fair share.”
Suspecting a coup, Turkish President Recep Erdogan arrests 40,000 Turkish citizens.
2017 President Donald Trump complains that NATO members “aren’t paying what they should.” At the height of the Cold War, America accounted for 56% of NATO’s defense spending; by 2017, it’s closer to 70%.
Montenegro joins NATO.
U.S. generals accuse Russia of arming the Taliban.
Turkey purchases Russian air-defense systems.
2018 Asked during a NATO summit, “Would you leave us if we don’t pay our bills?” Trump responds, “I would consider it.”
Washington reactivates 2nd Fleet.
2020 The Republic of North Macedonia joins NATO.
Washington activates V Corps-Forward in Poland.
May 2021 Russian cyberattacks hit U.S. energy infrastructure.
August 2021 President Joe Biden orders U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. As operations come to a close, 74% of troops deployed in the country that spawned 9/11 are not American.
December 2021 Putin demands NATO not expand, cease military activities in Eastern Europe, and withdraw forces to where they were before Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic joined NATO.
CORNERSTONE With threats to the free world metastasizing, NATO solidified its role not only as the cornerstone of America’s security, but as the coordinating hub for international security.
2022 Putin launches his second invasion of Ukraine – an all-out effort to seize Kiev and erase Ukraine’s independence. NATO members rush military aid to Kiev. Although Ukraine isn’t a NATO member, the allies recognize, finally, that Putin’s war threatens what the North Atlantic Treaty calls the “stability and … security of the North Atlantic area.”
NATO establishes battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announces a near-doubling of defense spending, declaring, “The world will no longer be the same.”
In a visit to Poland, Biden echoes Pope John Paul II, urging Ukrainian refugees and their Polish hosts, “Be not afraid.”
Longtime neutrals Sweden and Finland seek NATO membership.
With Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand attending the NATO summit, NATO identifies China as a challenge and commits to partnering with Indo-Pacific partners on “shared security interests.”
2023 Russia violates the New START treaty.
Washington establishes Army Garrison-Poland.
Finland joins NATO. Turkey and Hungary delay Sweden’s accession.
Germany deploys 4,000 troops to Lithuania; Britain announces deployment of 20,000 troops to NATO’s northern flank.
Putin deploys nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Allies unveil the NATO-Ukraine Defense Council.
2024 Sweden joins NATO. Twenty-three NATO members invest at least 2% of GDP on defense. The U.S. and Germany announce deployment on German territory of hypersonic weapons and Tomahawk land-attack missiles.
On its 75th anniversary, NATO – now 32 members – calls Russia a “direct threat to allies’ security.”