When the U.S., Canada and 10 western European nations came together in 1949 to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, they had a clear goal. “Keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down,” said Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay, NATO’s first Secretary General. The military alliance was intended to rebuild Europe from the rubble of World War II and to act as a buffer against Soviet aggression.
But the collapse of the Soviet Union made NATO’s purpose less clear. In fact, in 1990, as the Cold War drew to a close, President Mikhail Gorbachev proposed the Soviet …read more
Source: Time
