WHAT IS NATO?
May 12, 2022
4 minutes
WORDS JOANNA ELPHICK
t the close of World War II, the economic position of Western Europe was fragile and its military sorely depleted. Meanwhile, the communist Soviet Union had grown in size and strength, seizing political control over the states of Central and Eastern Europe and dividing the continent in two. All wartime cooperation ceased, leaving the communists pushing against the West from behind the Iron Curtain. The US was particularly concerned with communist activity, and realising that it would take a group effort to uphold democratic principles initiated a series of covert discussions with its Eastern European allies. It was during this political unrest that NATO was born. Its mission: to
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