NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an imperialist military alliance of 30 European and North American countries, formed on 4 April 1949 by the original 12 members in response to perceived Soviet 'aggression'. In 1954 the USSR requested to join NATO, expecting it to decline and in this formalize NATO as an anti-Soviet alliance, thereby legitimizing a defensive alliance of the Soviets' own, leading to the creation of the Warsaw Pact in 1955 after West Germany joined NATO earlier that year. NATO continued after the fall of the Eastern Bloc and the Warsaw Pact, considering Russia its new threat while also serving as a means of imperialism. Not only did it continue, but it actually expanded despite a previous agreement with the Soviet leadership that in exchange for receiving East Germany, which would have only limited NATO presence, NATO would respect Soviet concerns about it and cooperate with it in such — this of course was a concession by the Soviets to limit NATO expansion, yet this agreement was violated by subsequent expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe. Despite Western protests that no such deal was struck, hundreds of memos, meeting minutes and transcripts from U.S. archives indicate otherwise.

A 1997 New York Times article predicted that the expansion of NATO "may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking. And, last but not least, it might make it much more difficult, if not impossible, to secure the Russian Duma's ratification of the Start II agreement and to achieve further reductions of nuclear weaponry." Months after its publishing, a group of 50 prominent foreign policy experts that included former senators, retired military officers, diplomats, and academicians sent an open letter to President Clinton outlining their opposition to NATO expansion on the same grounds.

History and expansion

Main article: NATO expansion

Relations with the USSR

In September 1949, at the 4th session of the UN General Assembly, the USSR launched the initiative to sign the "Pact of Peace" — a treaty to strengthen peace between the five great powers: the USSR, the United States, China, Great Britain, and France. The USSR suggested that great powers should not resort to force (or the threat of force) but called on all states to resolve disputes and differences only by peaceful means. The United States and other NATO countries rejected the proposal. Stalin repeated the idea of the "Pact of Peace" at least two more times — on October 14, 1952, at the 19th Congress of the Communist Party and on February 17, 1953, during Stalin's conversation with India's ambassador to the USSR, the leader of the USSR again spoke in favor of the Peace Pact with the United States and NATO, in vain. On March 31, 1954, after Stalin's death, the USSR sent a note offering to join NATO on the terms of a USA-USSR-Europe collective security organization in a glorious demonstration of mutual love, respect, and longing for peace. NATO's reply boiled down to, "Do you think we are fools? First, cut off your atomic balls, go through a lobotomy and then, and only then, come back with your pants down." Having been rejected so blatantly, the USSR responded by forming the Warsaw Pact.

Interventions

NATO conducted no open military operations during the Cold War. Their first official military operation began with sending forces in the first Gulf War from 1990 to 1991. Throughout the 1990s it intervened extensively in Yugoslavia, drawing heavy criticism for its high civilian death count during such. NATO intervened in the breakup of Yugoslavia for several reasons, among the largest being over ownership of resources in the post-breakup republics. NATO countries wanted, for instance, access to the Trepča mines in Kosovo, which could otherwise have been nationalized under a regime unfriendly to them. Afterwards, NATO became involved in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks, wherein Article 5 of the NATO Charter, which states that an attack on any member shall be considered to be an attack on all, was first invoked. In 2011, NATO, led by France and the United Kingdom, intervened in Libya during its civil war, enforcing an arms embargo against it as well as setting up a no-fly zone, furthermore carrying out bombing runs against it. Besides killing large amounts of civilians, as usual, this destabilized the country and led to an ongoing military struggle between various factions within it.

Nazis in NATO

Many officers of Nazi Germany became involved in NATO including those close to Hitler and his plans.

• General Hans Speidel: Nazi general who was Erwin Rommel's chief of staff during WWII, became the Supreme Commander of NATO's ground forces in Central Europe from 1957 to 1963.
• Johannes Steinhoff: Luftwaffe fighter pilot during WWII and recipient of the Knights Cross of the Iron across (the Nazi military's highest award), was Chairman of the NATO Military Committee 1971–1974 (among other NATO positions beforehand).
• Johann von Kielmansegg: General Staff officer to the High Command of the Wehrmacht 1942–1944, was NATO's Commander in Chief of Allied Forces Central Europe 1967–1968.
• Ernst Ferber: Major in the Wehrmacht and group leader of the organizational department of the Supreme Command of the Army (Wehrmacht) from 1943 to 1945 and recipient of the Iron Cross 1st Class, was NATO's Commander in Chief of Allied Forces Central Europe from 1973 to 1975.
• Adolf Heusinger: chief of the Operationsabteilung from 1940 to 1944, 3rd in command of the entire Nazi armed forces. He served from 1961 to 1964 as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee.
• Karl Schnell: battery chief in the Western campaign in 1940, later First General Staff Officer of the LXXVI Panzer Corps in 1944 and recipient of the Iron Cross 2nd Class, was NATO's Commander in Chief of Allied Forces Central Europe from 1975 to 1977.
• Franz-Joseph Schulze: a Lieutenant in the reserve and Chief of the 3rd Battery of the Flak Storm Regiment 241 and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in 1944, was NATO's Commander in Chief of Allied Forces Central Europe from 1977 to 1979.
• Ferdinand von Senger und Etterlin: Lieutenant of 24th Panzer Division in the German 6th Army, participant in the Battle of Stalingrad, adjutant to Army High Command, and recipient of the German Cross in gold, was NATO's Commander in Chief of Allied Forces Central Europe 1979–1983.

See also

• List of atrocities committed by the United States

External links

• Gallery of NATO intervention in Yugoslavia from the perspective of Yugoslavs
• NATO’s Nazi Beginnings: How the West implemented Hitler’s goals