The NATO that once was
Publisher: RAND Corporation
Volume: 9 pages, pdf
Description:
NATO was not part of the initial post–World War II design. Initial planning for the postwar order focused on the creation of global entities—the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank—and enforcement by the “Four Policemen”: the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China.1 Several key elements of this plan did not survive Roosevelt’s death in 1945; some parts did not survive the decade; and still other parts, rather amazingly, survive to this day.
NATO was born of necessity as postwar euphoria gave way to ever increasing tensions with the Soviet Union in Europe and with Northeast Asia. Communist success in China and China’s open, although short-lived, embrace of Moscow only fueled the need for action. Plans for global security arrangements, created during the middle to waning days of World War II, gave way to two distinct camps: East and West. NATO would become the centerpiece of security cooperation for the West.
But the all-too-apparent need for NATO did not mean that creating the alliance would be simple or seamless. At the heart of the debate was deep-seated concern over what role defeated and occupied Germany should play in the new alliance. France, in particular, was at the center of the debate.