From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

Today, in a combative opening day of the NATO summit in Brussels, President Trump went after Germany,

calling it a captive of Russia, and calling other member countries, Delinquent.

Where his frustration is coming from.

It's Thursday, July 12th.

Michael, the story of NATO really starts with three countries, the United States, the Soviet Union,

and Nazi Germany. David Sanger is a national security correspondent for the times.

Now, the US and the Soviets, of course, were allies of convenience against Germany,

but it all came to a very ugly end as soon as victory in Europe was declared in April 1945.

And at that moment, the big concern moved away from a Nazi Germany that could threaten Europe

to a Soviet Union that could do so. So right after the war was over, there was a great fear

that vulnerable countries that had been initially taken over by the Nazis, from Poland,

Denmark, Belgium, could all fall under the influence of a communist Soviet Union.

So over time, the US came around to the idea that the Soviet Union had to be contained.

The gravity of the situation which confronts the world today necessitates my appearance

before a joint session of the Congress. And Harry Truman went to Congress in 1947 and laid that out.

I believe he said that I believe it must be the powers in the United States.

To support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by

outside pressures. And that was really the beginning of the liberal international order.

The idea that the United States was going to be a guarantor of freedom around the world.

So how did the US actually put that into practice?

Well, almost as soon as Truman uttered those words, a series of crises came up.

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