NATO and the Cold War - 512 Words

Thesis: Although NATO provided assistance in containing the spread of communism, and its member countries applied economic pressure on the Soviet Union, neither NATO nor President Reagan should be solely credited with causing the fall of the Soviet Union and thus the end of the Cold War. Instead, it was a combination of the tough Reagan administration policies and NATO’s threatening military armory along with grave economic problems within the Soviet Union that ultimately brought the end to the Cold War. The North Atlantic Treaty was written to form an alliance between the anticommunist Western European and North American nations. When it was written, in 1949, the twelve nations that would initially make up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, all came to the agreement that if any one of the member countries were attacked, such attack would be taken as an offense to all of the member countries, and a counter assault would certainly take place (North Atlantic Tre aty). Because NATO was a defense organization, being prepared to fight back in the event of an attack from the Soviet Union embodied one of its most important requirements. Therefore, much consideration and money went into assembling an array of potent nuclear weapons that could overwhelm the Soviets and inhibit them from triggering a nuclear war (North Atlantic Treaty Organization 4). The main purpose of this protective alliance was to contain communism and thus to prevent it from spreading aroundShow MoreRelated The Changing Role of NATO After the Cold War Essay6378 Words   |  26 PagesNATO After the Cold War and Changing Role OUTLINE 1. Introduction 2. NATO’s main functions 3. NATO’s new missions after Cold War 4. NATO in the 21’th century 5. Europe after the Cold War 6. NATO’s relations with OSCE and WEU 7. Conclusion 1. 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As seen during the Cold War, the United States and Russia both aspired for hegemony. However, even after the war, with the United States the global leader in terms of politics, military, and economics, Russia refused to submit to the United State’s power. With this perpetual power struggle between the two countriesRead More The Role for NATO in the Modern World Essay1610 Words   |  7 PagesThe Possibility of a Role for NATO in International Relations When NATO was founded in 1949, it had a clearly defined role. It was an alliance for collective security against the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, whereby if one member state was attacked, the rest would come to her aid under article 5. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, however, the role of NATO has become a great deal less clearly defined, since its members no longer really have any