NATO Warsaw Pact SA

• Results of the Berlin Blockade:

  • Cold War worsened
  • East and West Germany formed
  • NATO and the Warsaw Pact
  • Arms Race
• Development of NATO:

  • Marshall Plan was great success
  • Berlin Blockade scared the British → engaged in open talks with the US 10 days after
  • TD and MP were clear signs that America had no intention to returning to isolationism
• NATO:

  • NATO members: US, Canada, UK, France, Belgium, Netherland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Portugal
  • 1949 - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation formed
  • 1950 - output of West European countries increased by 25%
  • 1952 - Greece and Turkey joined
  • 1955 - West Germany joined
  • all members of NATO agreed to go to war if either was attacked and to protect them
  • permanent presence for US army in Europe
  • seen as act of war by Stalin → prioritised his own nuclear deterrent against the West (Soviet Atomic Bomb 1950)
• “The North Atlantic Treaty is not about self-defence of states. These states are not threatened by anyone and no one intends to attack them. On the contrary, the Treaty has an aggressive characteristic and is aimed against the USSR.” - Soviet protest against NATO
• 1955 - Warsaw Pact formed after Western Germany joined NATO
• Warsaw Pact:

  • set up in 1955
  • defensive military alliance of USSR and its satellite states in Eastern Europe
  • intended as a counterforce to NATO
  • relied on collective security - if one nation was attacked, the others would come to its support
  • helped make Eastern Europe an effective ‘buffer zone’ for the USSR against the West
• Warsaw Pact members: USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania
• US reaction:

  • propaganda war againt communism
  • NATO agreed to West German Army of 500k men (1955)
  • determined to win Space Race
  • used U2 planes to spy on Russia
• Geneva Summit: (July 1955)

  • first East-West Summit of Cold War
  • helped to shape superpower relations
  • Germany - Soviet proposals to neutralise Germany rejected due to concerns in increasing Soviet influence
  • European security arrangements - Soviet plans put forward for replacing NATO and Warsaw Pact with collective security system (viewed as plans to dismantle NATO)
• United Germany member of NATO:

  • Two Plus Four Treaty envisaged that united Germany would belong to NATO
  • German armed forces reduced to 370k soldiers
  • renouncement of atomic, biological and chemical weapons
• Formation of NATO:

  • 1949 - formed as a result of extensive negotiations by the US
  • was a collective security defence organisation against Soviet aggression (not explicitly mentioned)
  • WG not an initial member
  • Article 5 - “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all…”
• Massive retaliation:

  • part of MAD and etc
  • collective defence arrangements in NATO served to place WE under the ‘nuclear umbrella’
  • 1950s - strategic doctrine of ‘massive retaliation’; if the USSR attacked, NATO would respond with nuclear weapons
  • intended effect was to deter either side from risking an attack
• 1960s - Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin Wall and Detente

  • Kennedy’s strategy of ‘Flexible Response’ sought to replace Massive Retaliation’s absolute choice of peace or total nuclear war
  • Flexible Response enhanced NATO’s conventional defence posture by military responses short of full nuclear exchange
• French Nationalism:

  • March 1966 - de Gaulle announced intention to withdraw from NATO’s intergrated military command structure
  • 1967 - NATO HQ moved from France to Brussels
  • France remained politically within NATO and consistently emphasised its intention to stand with Allies in crucial events
  • 1993 - France rejoined NATO’s military command
• “Flexibility was always key to NATO’s success, and the French withdrawal from NATO’s integrated military command structure demonstrated that NATO, unlike the Warsaw Pact, could tolerate differing viewpoints between its members.” - NATO Website
• End of detente:

  • caused by 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and Soviet deployment of SS-20 ballistic missiles in Europe
  • NATO made the ‘dual track’ decision to deploy Pershing II and ground-launched cruise missiles in WE
  • 1982 - Spain joins NATO
• NATO missiles:

  • deployment not scheduled to begin until 1983
  • Allies hoped to achieve arms control agreement to eliminate the needs for weapons
  • 1983 - NATO suffered internal discord with Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament protests
• NATO-Russia relations:

  • December 1989 - Soviet Foreign Minister made first visit to NATO Headquarters
  • July 1990 - NATO Secretary General visited Moscow to discuss future cooperation
  • 1990 - Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe signed
  • established comprehensive limits on key catergories of conventional military equipment
  • mandated the destruction of excess weaponry
  • equal limits for NATIO and the Warsaw Pact
  • 31 March 1991 - Warsaw Pact dissolved
• The end of the Soviet Union:

  • many wondered whether NATO had any purpose after the Cold War
  • claims of NATO’s mission have always been as much political as military
  • many EE countries saw a relationship with NATO as essential for their stability, democracy and European intergration
• “The western alliance embodied in NATO had the effect of escalating the cold war. Historians are pretty much agreed. NATO was created by an over-reaction of the western world to what they perceived to be Soviet aggression. In the later years of the 1940s, Hitler was on everybody's mind. But Stalin was not Hitler. Furthermore, the Soviets were not Nazis. And in the end there was very little evidence of a Soviet plot to invade western Europe. All NATO really did was intensify Soviets fears of the West and to produce even higher levels of international tension.” - Soviet perspective source
• War in Bosnia - Phase Two: (April 1993 - February 1994)

  • debate on whether NATO should use air strikes (recommended by Clinton)
  • early 1994 - NATO put power at disposal of UN
  • mid-1993 sanction from Security Council had imposed on Serbia and Montenegro were having a big impact on the economy
• War in Bosnia - Phase Three: (April 1993 - January 1995)

  • NATO issued ultimatum to Serbs to remove heavy weaponry from exclusion zone around Saravejo or they would use air strikes
  • Contact Group (mediation group) established, consisting of diplomats from US, Russia, France, UK and Germany
  • 1994 - NATO used air strikes against Serb targets in Bosnia and Croatia
• War in Bosnia - Phase Four: (January - November 1995)

  • Bosnian Serbs refused to return stolen UN weapons → NATO destroyed ammunition dump near Pate
  • Serbs took hostaged 400 UN personnel, using them as a human shield → more British, French, US troops being deployed
  • Dayton Peace Deal (November 1995) - US pressure led to two self-governing entities in Bosnia - Bosnian Serb Republic and Muslim (Bosniak) Croat Federation
  • NATO led peace keeping force to implement the deal
• Kosovo Intervention: (1999)

  • 1998 - after 9 years of the abolition of Kosovo’s autonomy, the Kosovo Liberation Army rebelled against the Serbian rule
  • international pressure on Milosevic to end escalating violence
  • West threatens military action
  • NATO sent air strikes — first attack on sovereign European country
  • caused huge casualties and accidentally bombed and Chinese embassy
  • succeeded in forcing Milosevic to withdraw troops
  • Milosevic in Hague (city in Netherlands) for war crimes
• US foreign policy response: (Yugoslavia)

  • Clinton proposed bombing Serb supply lines → eventually accepted by NATO
  • Serbian supply lines and military targets bombed
  • November 1995 - Clinton got both sides to sign the Dayton Peace Accords → division of Bosnia
  • March-June 1999 - bombing campaign on Yugoslavia as a result of ethnic Albanians pressing for independence from Serbia
• North American Cooperation Council: (1991)

  • forum which invited former communist countries to share in joint dialogue with NATO members on security matters
  • PfP obligated NATO members to consult with NACC members who feel threatened by external adversary
• Partnership for Peace:

  • Russia objected to full NATO membership of Poland and other Central European states
  • 1993 - Partnership for Peace (PfP) proposed between former Warsaw Pact states and Soviet republics
  • February 1994 - Yeltsin opposed the future inclusion of Central European states in NATO (would exclude Russia from participation in European affairs)
  • April 1994 - Yeltsin hinted that Russia might delay signing the agreement in response to NATO air strikes on Bosnian Serb forces
  • May 1994 - unsucessful calling for NATO to agree to a list of special privileges for Russia
• Critiques of the PfP:

  • proposal went too far, potentially diluting the alliance’s effective
  • partnership would do too little and leave Central and Eastern Europe exposed to Russia’s ‘imperial ambitions’
  • critics of Clinton’s ‘Russia-first emphasis’ argued for a need of a policy more supportive of the Eastern European democracies
  • potential effect of ‘gradual NATO expansion’ on the internal stability of Central and Eastern European states
• Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe: (December 1994)

  • Russia unsucessfully called for the CSCE to transform itself into the major security organisation in Europe
  • name changed to Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe to reflect its status as a permanent organisation
  • the West viewed Russia’s overture as seeking a forum to gain influence over NATO and other Western organisations
  • 1995 - Russian spokesmen continuted their criticism of NATO and called for an alternative European security structure