Happy Sixtieth Birthday NATO
 

The North Atlantic Treaty was signed on 4 April 49.

The original signers were

Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, and the United States.

The treaty is one of the shortest treaties signed.

http://www.nato.int/docu/basictxt/treaty.htm

While not perfect (what is?), NATO seemed to do its job for sixty years. :salute:

Trivia question: When was the first time the "mutual self-defense" clause of NATO was used?

sept 13 2001 I think :woot:

Close 9 Oct 2001 Operation Eagle Assist.

I always thought this was to specifically counter Warsaw Pact forces, but in the charter, it doesn't mention them by name. I always thought NATO had no purpose, since WP no longer exsist.

Of course, you can't go around saying "We are forming this giant military alliance because the Commies are pissing us off", but people get the idea anyway

BTW, the Warsaw Pact was signed some years after NATO

I used to know, but I don't remember anymore.

It just strikes me as funny, that half of WP is in NATO now.

Ah! Who was the contry of the original signers that was not a democratic regime?

Dang! NATO's just over a year older than me!

I wonder who'll last longer?:sunny:

That would be the fascist dictatorship under Salazar .

The correct answer was Portugal!:O: (actually it was more national-coorporativism)

Isn't that what Mussolini said was the doctrine of fascism .

Salazarism as it's call it or national-cooporativism may had his roots in the italian fascism, but it was not like it. And further discussion, one must make a new thread since this one is about the nato birthday.;)