"Tanks in the Cold War During the Cold War (1945–1990), the two opposing forces in Europe were the Warsaw Pact countries on the one side, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries on the other side. The Warsaw Pact was seen by the West as having an aggressive force outnumbering the NATO forces. Soviet domination of the Warsaw Pact led to effective standardization on a few tank designs. In comparison, NATO adopted a defensive posture. The major contributing nations, France, Germany, the USA, and the UK developed their own tank designs, with little in common, while the smaller nations"
"and some formerly neutral states taking in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, Spain and Greece became the Western Bloc. Canada, the United States, and the European countries among this group formed a military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, to oppose the Eastern Bloc and their military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, which was composed of the wartime Allies Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union, the ex-Axis powers of Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary and Romania as well as Albania. The conflict between the Eastern and Western Blocs became known as the Cold War. Though initially politically close"
"international military alliance of European countries known as NATO to counterbalance the Soviets' Warsaw Pact and until communist rule in Eastern Europe ended in the late 1980s. The Communists emerged from the war sharing the vast prestige of the victorious Soviet armed forces, and for a while it looked as though they might take power in France, Italy and Greece. The West quickly acted to prevent this from happening, hence the Cold War. In Greece the German occupation (April 1941 – October 1944) destroyed the economy through war reparations, plundering of the country's resources and hyper-inflation. In addition, the Germans"
"Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc (also the Socialist Bloc, the Communist Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc) was the group of Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, and Southeast Asia under the hegemony of the USSR during the Cold War (1945–91), in opposition to the non-communist Western Bloc. Generally, in Western Europe, the term Eastern bloc comprised the USSR and its East European satellite-states, in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon); in Asia, the Socialist bloc comprised the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and the People's Republic of Kampuchea; the Democratic People's"
"sided with the Soviet Union against Germany after the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. During the post-Second World War era the Allies split into two blocs, a balance of power emerged among the Eastern Bloc (affiliated with the Soviet Union and the Socialist nations of Central and Eastern Europe), the Western Bloc (affiliated with the Western democracies, particularly France, the United States, and the United Kingdom), and neutral or non-aligned countries (including Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia). The majority of the European democratic nations, together with Canada and the US, came together under the military alliance of NATO, which"
"and 21 partner countries. The partner countries are: On 20 December 1991, the first meeting of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, hosted a meeting between NATO, Eastern European nations and the USSR. Near the end of the meeting, the Soviet Ambassador received a message that concurrently to the meeting, the Soviet Union was dissolving and would cease to exist the following day. The Soviet Ambassador noted that as of then, he was only representing the Russian Federation and no longer the Soviet Union. Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), a post-Cold War NATO institution, is a multilateral forum"
"Eastern Pact The Eastern Pact was a proposed mutual-aid treaty, intended to bring the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania together in opposition to Nazi Germany. The idea of the Eastern Pact was advanced early in 1934 by the French minister of foreign affairs, Louis Barthou, and was actively supported by the Soviet government. In May and June 1934, the Soviet Union and France agreed to conclude a bilateral treaty providing for France's guaranteeing of the Eastern Pact and the guaranteeing of the Locarno Treaties of 1925 by the Soviet Union. On 14 June 1934 the"
"that they had destroyed Hitler and the Nazi invaders. Their goal was to guarantee long-term working-class solidarity. Under pressure from Stalin these nations rejected grants from the American Marshall plan. Instead they participated in the Molotov Plan which later evolved into the Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance). When NATO was created in 1949, most countries of Eastern Europe became members of the opposing Warsaw Pact, forming a geopolitical concept that became known as the ""Eastern Bloc"". With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the political landscape of the Eastern Bloc, and indeed the world, changed. In the"
"War II, and soon became the principal zone of contention in the Cold War between the two power blocs, the Western countries and the Communist bloc. The United States and the majority of European liberal democracies at the time (United Kingdom, France, Italy, Netherlands, West Germany etc.) established the NATO military alliance. Later, the Soviet Union and its satellites (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania) in 1955 established the Warsaw Pact as a counterpoint to NATO. The Warsaw Pact had a much larger ground force, but the American-French-British nuclear umbrellas protected NATO. Communist states were imposed by the"
"although most of the former Soviet republics formed the Collective Security Treaty Organization shortly thereafter. Throughout the following 20 years, the seven Warsaw Pact countries outside the USSR each joined NATO (East Germany through its reunification with West Germany; and the Czech Republic and Slovakia as separate countries), as did the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) that had been part of the Soviet Union. In the Western Bloc, the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance is often called the Warsaw Pact military alliance—abbreviated WAPA, Warpac and WP. Elsewhere, in the former member states, the Warsaw"
"Another global organisation, known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), was established on 4 April 1949 with Britain one of its founding members. The creation of NATO signified the beginning of the ""Cold War"" between the ideologically divided ""Western Allies"" and the Eastern Communist powers, controlled by the Soviet Union; they created their own NATO equivalent in 1955, known as the Warsaw Pact. An integral part of NATO's defences in the now divided Europe was the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in West Germany, the British Army's new overseas 'home' that replaced independent India. The British Army, just"
"to the Soviet Union, Albania, China, and Yugoslavia became nonaligned over the course of the Cold War. Cuba, another one of the Allies during World War II, became aligned with the Eastern Bloc after 1959 as did Ethiopia after 1974. Western Allies The Western Allies were a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the First World War and Second World War. It generally includes the British Empire, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and the Kingdom of Serbia and Kingdom of"
"of Alliance with France. The treaty establishing NATO was widely popular and easily passed the Senate in 1949. NATO's goals were to contain Soviet expansion in Europe and to send a clear message to communist leaders that the world's democracies were willing and able to build new security structures in support of democratic ideals. The treaty also re-assured France that the United States would come to its defense, paving the way for continuing French cooperation in the re-establishment of an independent German state. The U.S., Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Canada were the"
"the communist Eastern bloc, separated by what was later called by Winston Churchill an ""Iron Curtain"". The United States and Western Europe established the NATO alliance and later the Soviet Union and Central Europe established the Warsaw Pact. The two new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, became locked in a fifty-year-long Cold War, centred on nuclear proliferation. At the same time decolonisation, which had already started after World War I, gradually resulted in the independence of most of the European colonies in Asia and Africa. In the 1980s the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev and the Solidarity movement"
"governments, the United States and Western European nations agreed to include them within the continent’s main international institutions – the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – to include former Soviet and Soviet-bloc states. By 2009, NATO had admitted 12 members from formerly communist-ruled Eastern Europe: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in 1999; Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004; and Albania and Croatia in 2009. The European Union added 11 such members: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary in 2004; Bulgaria and Romania in 2007; and Croatia"
"Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), a post-Cold War NATO institution, is a multilateral forum created to improve relations between NATO and non-NATO countries in Europe and those parts of Asia on the European periphery. States meet to cooperate and go to the range of political and security issues. It was formed on May 29, 1997 in the ministers meeting of Sintra, Portugal, as the successor to the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), which was created in 1991. It works alongside the Partnership for Peace (PfP), created in 1994. There are 50 members, the 29 NATO member countries"
"Western European Union The Western European Union (WEU) was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 Treaty of Brussels. The WEU implemented the Modified Brussels Treaty. The WEU member states were also allies of the United States (the Western Bloc and NATO members) during the Cold War through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). At the turn of the 21st century, after the end of the Cold War, WEU tasks and institutions were gradually transferred to the European Union (EU), providing central parts of the EU's new military"
"Western European Union The Western European Union (WEU) was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 Treaty of Brussels. The WEU implemented the Modified Brussels Treaty. The WEU member states were also allies of the United States (the Western Bloc and NATO members) during the Cold War through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). At the turn of the 21st century, after the end of the Cold War, WEU tasks and institutions were gradually transferred to the European Union (EU), providing central parts of the EU's new military"
"and North America. On April 4, 1949, the foreign minister of Belgium joined with representatives from Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States in signing the treaty forming NATO. Greece and Turkey became members in 1952, West Germany joined the alliance in 1955, and Spain became a member in 1982. The treaty established NATO as a multilateral political alliance that binds its members to obligations of mutual defense and economic cooperation. During the Cold War, Belgium's major NATO roles included: (1) participating in the defense of the central European region by air-land"
"not fallen under Soviet control following World War II. The treaty establishing it was widely popular and easily passed the Senate in 1949; Truman appointed General Eisenhower as commander. NATO's goals were to contain Soviet expansion in Europe and to send a clear message to communist leaders that the world's democracies were willing and able to build new security structures in support of democratic ideals. The U.S., Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Canada were the original treaty signatories. The alliance resulted in the Soviets establishing a similar alliance, called the Warsaw Pact. General"
"that demanded decisions and action. In NATO he pushed the U.S.-sponsored ""Partnership for Peace"" program to bring together NATO members and nonmembers for military activities, including training maneuvers, equipment sharing, search and rescue, antiterrorist efforts, environmental cleanup, and peacekeeping operations. At a meeting in Brussels in December 1993 the NATO defense ministers agreed to consider for future alliance membership those non-NATO nations that participated in the program. Russian President Boris Yeltsin warned that attempts to bring Eastern European nations into NATO would threaten his country's strategic interests and endanger hopes for the former Soviet bloc's reconciliation with the West. Yeltsin"
"against the Nazis. During the Cold War, Canada was part of democratic Western bloc and a NATO member, in opposition to the Soviet-led Communist Bloc (the Warsaw Pact). Compared to the US and Britain, Canadian policy towards the Soviet Union was less confrontational, in part because Canada was not a nuclear power or the leader of the democratic nations. However, in 1991 Canada was the first major Western country to recognize the independence of the Baltic states and Ukraine, which helped to cement their international legitimacy and formalize the end of the Soviet Union. Canada and post-Soviet Russia established relations"
"[[superpower]]s never fought one another directly. [[File:NATO vs. Warsaw (1949-1990).svg|upright=3.4|thumb|center|]] The Soviet Union created the [[Eastern Bloc]] of countries that it occupied, annexing some as [[Soviet Socialist Republics]] and maintaining others as satellite states that would later form the [[Warsaw Pact]]. The United States and various western European countries began a policy of ""[[containment]]"" of [[communism]] and forged myriad alliances to this end, including [[NATO]]. Several of these western countries also coordinated efforts regarding the rebuilding of western Europe, including western Germany, which the Soviets opposed. In other regions of the world, such as Latin America and [[Southeast Asia]], the"
"the Soviet Union, which would soon fall itself at the end of 1991. Conservative communist elites attempted to turn back liberal reforms and movements, which hastened the end of Marxist-Leninist rule in Eastern Europe but preserved it in China. Though the Soviet Union and its rival the United States considered Europe the most important front of the Cold War, during the Cold War, the term ""Eastern Bloc"" was often used interchangeably with the term Second World. This broadest usage of the term would include not only Maoist China and Cambodia, but short-lived Soviet satellites such as East Turkestan Republic (1944-1949),"
"move that would humiliate the Soviets internationally — supplying the beleaguered city by air. Military confrontation threatened while Truman, with British help, flew supplies over East Germany into West Berlin during the 1948–49 blockade. This costly aerial supplying of West Berlin became known as the Berlin Airlift. Truman joined eleven other nations in 1949 to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the United States' first ""entangling"" European alliance in 170 years. Stalin replied to these moves by integrating the economies of Eastern Europe in his version of the Marshall Plan, exploding the first Soviet atomic device in 1949, and"
"of Europe between East and West, with the East under the control of the Soviet Union and the West dominated by NATO. The two sides engaged in the Cold War, with actual conflict taking place not in Europe but in Asia in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The Imperial system collapsed. The remaining colonial empires ended through the decolonisation of European rule in Africa and Asia. The fall of Soviet Communism (1989– 1991) left the West dominant and enabled the reunification of Germany. It accelerated the process of a European integration to include Eastern Europe. The European Union"
"by the United States. The rivalry between the two sides came to be known as the Cold War and during this period the United States government played a leading role in supporting global anti-communism as part of its containment policy. There were numerous military conflicts between Communists and anti-Communists in various parts of the world, including the Chinese Civil War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Soviet–Afghan War. NATO was founded as an anti-communist military alliance in 1949 and continued throughout the Cold War. With the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991,"
"Western Allies The Western Allies were a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the First World War and Second World War. It generally includes the British Empire, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and the Kingdom of Serbia and Kingdom of Montenegro and their successor state, Yugoslavia due to different economic, geographic and political circumstances, some of which arose after the wars. Similarly, Poland and Czechoslovakia are often excluded from the term, because of their post-war forced inclusion in the Eastern"
"happy to be living under democratic rule, regretting their Fascist pasts. In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO. The treaty was signed by the United States, Canada, the Low Countries, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, Italy, France, and Britain. NATO members agreed that if any one of them were attacked, they would all consider themselves attacked and retaliate. NATO would expand as the years went on, other nations joined, including Greece, Turkey, and West Germany. The Soviets responded with the Warsaw Pact, an alliance which bound Central and Eastern Europe to fight"
"and eastern and central Europe (i.e. the area between Germany and Russia). There are numerous reasons for its strength in Eastern Europe, primarily the role of the United States bringing political freedom there after the First World War, the role of the US in defeating Nazism, its leading role during the Cold War, its relative enthusiasm for bringing the countries of the region into Atlanticist institutions such as NATO, and a suspicion of the intentions of the major Western European powers. Countries such as Denmark, Poland, Romania, and the United Kingdom are among those who generally hold strong Atlanticist views,"
"expansion to include newly autonomous Central and Eastern European nations, and extended its activities into political and humanitarian situations that had not formerly been NATO concerns. The first post-Cold War expansion of NATO came with German reunification on 3 October 1990, when the former East Germany became part of the Federal Republic of Germany and the alliance. This had been agreed in the Two Plus Four Treaty earlier in the year. To secure Soviet approval of a united Germany remaining in NATO, it was agreed that foreign troops and nuclear weapons would not be stationed in the east. Whilst there"
"was to establish a buffer zone of states between Germany and the Soviet Union. Truman charged that Stalin had betrayed the Yalta agreement. With Eastern Europe under Red Army occupation, Stalin was also biding his time, as his own atomic bomb project was steadily and secretly progressing. In April 1949 the United States sponsored the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense pact in which most Western nations pledged to treat an armed attack against one nation as an assault on all. The Soviet Union established an Eastern counterpart to NATO in 1955, dubbed the Warsaw Pact. The division"
"Eastern Partnership The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a joint initiative of the European External Action Service of the European Union (EU) together with EU, its Member States, and six Eastern European Partners governing its relationship with the post-Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The EaP is intended to provide an avenue for discussions of trade, economic strategy, travel agreements, and other issues between the EU and its Eastern European neighbours. It also aims at building a common area of shared democracy, prosperity, stability, and increased cooperation. The project was initiated by Poland and a subsequent proposal"