On April 4, 1949, representatives of 11 North American and European countries assembled in Washington, D.C. to sign a treaty of mutual defense.

That treaty, and the organization which it spawned, has served as the basis for defense policy in Western Europe and North America for almost 75 years.

And over that time, the membership of this organization has grown and its original purpose has changed.

Learn more about NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,

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Capital at risk internet banking customers only, account fees and charges apply. At the end of World War II, many policymakers in the United States and Europe

assumed that their problems were over.

Hitler and Mussolini had been defeated and the Allies had won.

However, it soon became obvious that the alliance that was created for the purpose of

defeating Nazi Germany had served its purpose and was an alliance no more.

The Soviets never pulled out of the Eastern European countries that they occupied.

They installed communist governments and back to military coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948.

The Soviets intentions became crystal clear when they began a blockade of West Berlin in the summer of 1948

with the intent of pushing out the Western powers that occupied the Western part of the city.

A year before in 1947, France and the United Kingdom had signed the Treaty of Dunkirk, which was a self-defense

pact.

Oddly enough, the intent of the treaty wasn't protection from the Soviet Union so much as it was

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