The founding of Nato

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nato - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - was formed in 1949 by 12 countries, including the US, UK, Canada and France.

Its aim was to block expansion by the then Soviet Union - a group of states which included Russia.

The UK’s foreign secretary at the time, Ernest Bevin, played a key role in persuading the US to join the alliance.

This programme, produced and presented by Vicky Farncombe, tells the story of Nato's founding using archive interviews.

(Credit: Ernest Bevin signs the North Atlantic treaty. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:37.0	You're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me
0:45.3	Vicky Fancum. I've been listening to the archives to bring you the story of
0:49.8	how NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was formed 75 years ago to block Soviet expansion
0:57.2	into Europe.
0:58.2	If the Atlantic peck is thorough, if it's complete, if it's of a
1:10.2	character in which in the case of aggression we're all in together
1:15.3	the biggest contribution to world peace that any human beings has ever yet
1:21.6	devised. That's Ernest Bevin. Britain's... human beings has ever yet devised.
1:22.8	That's Ernest Bevin, Britain's foreign secretary from 1945 to 1951,
1:29.2	outlining his hopes for a military alliance with Western Europe and the United States.
1:34.0	The need for such a coalition was not immediately apparent in the early years following the end of World War II.
1:40.0	The former allies of Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the US
1:45.0	were determined to find a way to continue the process of cooperation that had begun during the war.
1:51.0	They had lots to liaison, not least the future of defeated Germany.
1:55.2	An Ernest Bevin, a socialist who had advanced a trade union movement in Britain,
2:00.4	was hopeful of finding common ground with the Russians.
	...

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