Tag: NATO

05/11/11

Crisis in the Balkan

A Map detailing the mix of ethnic groups before the Balkan Crisis

The Balkan Peninsula is a region located in southeast Europe that has been an area of ethnic tention since the beginning of the 20th century. In 1989, the  cold war came to an end with the result being the fall of communism in the soviet union as well as many eastern European countries as well including yugoslavia. After the fall of communism in Yugoslavia, the nation broke into five different states and the Christian Serbs in Bosnia initiated a ethnic cleansing that was aim to drive out Muslims and Croats. Their exreme methods of rape and murder to drive out other ethnic group caught the attention of UN forces. NATO launched air strikes towards the Serbian forces that eventually led to a cease fire but the casualties of this ethnic cleansing were dramatically high.

Six year’s after the ethnic cleansing that claimed a large percentage of Bosnian civilians lives, another enthnic cleansing arose in the Balkan Peninsula. The Yugoslavian troops and Serbs aimed to drive away the Albanian residents in Kosovo. In order to halt the violation of human rights, NATO engaged in a war with Yugoslavia that lasted two years.

04/4/11

Warsaw Pact vs. Nato

After World War 2 the world was seperated into to two parts, half supported the War Saw pact which was formed by the Soviet Union, which also supported Communism, and half was with Nato which was formed by the Americans.  This could have been prevented easily as Communism was a huge factor in causing the wars and major conflicts of the 1940’s and 50’s.  In 1955 when the Warsaw pact was formed, 8 eastern europe communist states were members of the warsaw pact.  Nato which was formed in 1949, still has many members and continues to support democracy around the world.

04/4/11

NATO

Nato summit
It seems a lot of the time that people just refuse to learn. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in the year 1949, jus a few years after 2 huge alliances caused mass destruction on a global spectrum. America, along with several European nations decided to plant the seeds for another such episode.

Not only did the mere presence of a large scale alliance encourage a repeat of the past but the attitude at which they approached the alliance aided digression. One would recall that the harsh nature of the treaty of Versailles was the main tool that Hitiler used to persuades the german people into conquest. One would think that after episode the world would learn that once you have beatene an opponet u let them go in oppose to holding there head underwater, becauses that would leave them no choice but to retaliate once again, out of desperation. However Lord Ismay, NATO’s first Secretary general said the purpose of the organization was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down”. Fortunately, these seeds never grew into a war. It was still however a wreckless action to take at the time they took it. We were one bad decision away, from turning the Cuban Missle Crises to World War III.

04/4/11

NATO:Protection or Destruction?

In June 1948 The United States, Britain and France introduced a separate currency in their areas in order to  be ahead of the new West German Government that would be aligned with them in the Cold War. In response the Germans cut off road and railroad traffic from the American, British, and French zones from Germany to Berlin. There was an elven month airlift that followed. When the airlift was lifted in May 1949, there was a big victory for the Truman Administration. Soon after East and West Germany merged. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization also known as NATO was established in 1948. The organization pledged mutual defense against future Soviet attack according to Foner.

The establishment of NATO is life changing to history because today the organization still makes decisions on whether or not there should be agreements on attacks today. The effects of NATO today are seen in the attacks of September 11, 2001. The response to attacks established by NATO are not always what some people in the United States would want to see. There is a lot of danger which lurks within these decisions which can affect many people in different countries across the globe. I think that establishing NATO could be helpful but also fatal depending on the weapon of choice for attack where potential innocent people could be hurt.History could have been different by the United States being subject to another attack by the Germans. There would probably have still been a division in the country and the US would have been subject to control from another country. There really is no telling how much of a difference could have been made or whether or not this would have made this world better or worse. It is up to many of us to decide out or decision in this case.

04/4/11

The Berlin Blockade

At the end of WWII, each of the four major nations that had won the war took control over sections of Germany and of the capital city of Berlin as well.  Eventually there were different currencies from the different occupiers floating around in the different “zones” and it led to the split.  This area would be know as west Germany, an ally to the US, French, and British.  This area was far into a dangerous area that the Soviets had control over, bordering Soviet East Germany.  In response to the split of Germany, the Soviets blockaded the area, blocking all supply lines to West Germany.  They blocked road and rail traffic completely.  The only way to get supplies into West Germany, to their allies, was by air.  An 11month air drop of supplies then followed, mainly consisting of food and fuel.

A direct result of this blockade was the creation of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was the first peace time treaty that was militaristic in nature.  Its main purpose was to stop the spread of Communism, and protect America and the European nations whom signed it. The idea was that if Communists took control of one country all the others would join together and fight it back.  Had we not had NATO, the US may have potentially become communist, or worse we might not be here do to the concept of “MAD” (Mutually Assured Destruction).  This ideology was essentially that if the Soviet Union launched its nuclear missiles at the US, we would launch ours right back at them, thus obliterating each other, and potentially the world.