History about the NATO

Today, I am going to talk about how does Cold War relate to the NATO.

The formation of NATO in 1949 increased tension between the USA and the USSR.  Especially the US troops stationed in West Germany, that make USSR felt threated by this.

In September 1952, the first NATO maritime exercises began. There were 200 ships and over 50000 personnel to practice the defense. There were lots kinds of exercises, like: Exercise Grand Slam, Long step, and naval, amphibious exercises in the Mediterranean Sea ect. So we can see all of the maritime exercises is preparing for any war that is coming from the Warsaw Pact.

French withdrawal

In 1963, the France Government issued that the fleet in Atlantic was no more obeyed by the NATO, which means France can do whatever they want in Atlantic Ocean. Early in 1959, the president of France Charles de Gaulle claimed that France need hers individual power, and Europe is belong to European. He said the Western Europe should be a union, but no USA. It seems like he doesn’t like to be under control by USA or NATO. The France also developed his own nuclear power. At the same period, France also made up the relationship between the Eastern Europe, which is the Warsaw Pact and Soviet.

After 1959, the relationship between France and NATO is getting worse. In 1964, the France Government withdrew the entire officials in NATO. In March 1966, the France Government officially claimed quit the NATO; France withdrew all of the army in NATO, and ban the airspace in France that any planes cannot fly across; and announce withdrew all of France Army in NATO before July, as well as the US army withdrew form France area. In July 1^st 1966, The France officially quit the NATO. Therefor, the headquarters moved to the Brussels. The original headquarter of NATO is in Paris.

I think this kind of movement is all about against to the NATO, but especially the USA, maybe the France thought the USA is too powerful that is a time bomb for France. Maybe one day, the USA will try to invade the France, because the USA was too powerful, nobody could stop them growing, except the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet may stop them. And I can tell actually the France was not aim at the NATO, but The USA; the France were saying the Europe should control by Europeans. So France just doesn’t like the USA to participate the polity in Europe, they tried to start the revolution, but nobody is following France.