The United States and the Founding of NATO

On the 4th of April 1949 several Western European states, Canada and the United States signed the North Atlantic Treaty. The new allies agreed that “an armed attack against one or more of them… shall be considered an attack against them all”. To help the allies, a new organisation based on the North Atlantic Treaty was formed: the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The reasons that led President Harry S. Truman to sign the treaty have been researched quite extensively in the past decades. NATO’s purpose in the eyes of the Truman administration was to institutionalize, from a military point of view, the strategy of containment set forth in the Truman Doctrine. It was supposed to support Western Europe and prevent the further expansion of the Communist influence sphere. However it is still somewhat unclear what kind of alliance and appropriate organization the US administration wanted and envisioned during the founding phase of the alliance and if the eventual embodiment of NATO corresponded with the US administrations views. Therefore this thesis focusses on the following questions: how did the relevant officials within the US administration envision NATO during its founding phase, why did they chose those views and did the eventual embodiment of NATO correspond with the US administrations views? In this traditional historical research project, which covers the time-period between 1945 and December 1949, an awnser to these questions will be formulated by looking at internal and external communication of the Truman administration. From the American point of view, the primary goal of NATO was to enhance American security by strengthening the ability of the Europeans to resist the Soviet political threat. However since the US administration at the time did not fear a Soviet attack, and since military commitments needed to stay in line with US capabilities, they wanted to keep the military commitment to Europe as small as possible. Also the US government did not want to lose the right to make their own decisions and to make and peruse their own policy’s and goals, also in regard of defence matters. Finally the US government, especially the Senate, did not want to support an alliance which would endanger the existence of the UN. Subsequently the Americans wanted an alliance which would stiffen European moral but which at the same time would keep US military commitments to a minimum, support the UN and in which the US could retain the largest possible freedom of action. When we look at the North Atlantic Treaty and NATO as they were in December 1949 it is safe to say that the US administration got there way on almost all fronts. Although the US negotiators had to give in on some minor points, the US government got almost all of their demands realised.

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