Page 128 - NS-2 Textbook

THE COLD WAR ERA 121

In 1949 the United States, Canada, and their western European allies created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance
designed to enhance the security of the Western democracies.

nization (NATO). In this treat)\ all agreed that" an armed THE FAR EAST
attack against one or more of them ... shall be considered
an attack against them all." The nations that signed this In the Far East the end of World War II and the defeat of
military alliance were Belgium, Britain, Canada, Den- Japan fanned the flames of smoldering nationalism and
mark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Nether- anticolonialism into major insurgencies hying to take
lands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States. Turkey control of weak governments. Commwlist backing was
and Greece became members in 1951, the Federal Re- often a major factor in these revolutions.
public of Germany joined in 1955, and Spain joined in TIle government of Nationalist China, headed by
1982. France withdrew from military participation in Chiang Kai-shek/ "vas driven from the Inainland to Tai-
1966, though it still participates in political affairs. The wan by Mao Zedong's Communists in December 1949
former Soviet satellite countries Hlmgary, Poland, and after five years of civil war. TIle vacumn left by British
the Czech Republic joined in 1999, and others later. and French withdrawals from Southeast Asia in the early
NATO headquarters today is located in Belgitun. 1950s stimulated insurgencies in Burma, Thailand,
On the Commwust side, in 1949 the Soviets estab- Malaya, and Indochina. Indochina erupted into open
lished the Council for Mutual Econonuc Assistance as warfare. The Dutch were forced to leave the East Indies
the economic organization of Communist-bloc cOlllltries. after a revolution by the Indonesian people. The British
In 1955 the Eastern European Mutual Assistance Treaty, granted independence to India, Pakistan, and Ceylon.
more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, created In Korea after World War II, the Potsdam Conference
the military counterpart to NATO. The former organiza- had decreed that this former Japanese possession would
tion died with the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991. be temporarily divided, with the Soviets occupying the
Throughout the balance of the cold war from the part north of the thirty-eighth parallel and the Unlted
early 1950s on, Soviet turboprop Bear and supersonic States occupying the southern part of the country. The
Badger recOlmaissance aircraft continually monitored Soviets quickly established a puppet Commwlist regime
U.S. and NATO maritime exercises throughout the and trained a large North Korean army. In May 1948 they
Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean areas. In the 1980s established the People's Democratic Republic of Korea,
some of these aircraft were based in Cuba. From there, with its capital in Pyongyang.
they often flew surveillance missions all along the In the south, the United States and the United Na-
Atlantic seaboard of the United States. Often they were tions helped establish the Republic of Korea (ROK). In
intercepted and escorted by U.S. and NATO fighters, free elections, the South Koreans elected Syngman Rhee
keeping tension high throughout these years. as first president and set up their capital at Seoul in July