1949 | NATO's Anxious Birth | Jamie Shea's NATO History Class

There was nothing inevitable about the creation of NATO in 1949. The United States – mindful of George Washington’s warnings about “entangling alliances” hesitated right up to the last minute, and certainly was cautious about extending military security guarantees. NATO was only the second military alliance in the history of the United States. The Europeans started out more concerned to contain a renascent post-war Germany than their old wartime ally, the Soviet Union. They looked also for European rather than Atlanticist solutions in the immediate post-war years. Who was then the true father of NATO: Ernest Bevin, Harry Truman or Josef Stalin? This first lecture will examine the twists and turns in NATO’s protracted birth negotiations and explain why a despite initial hesitations on both sides – North Americans and Europeans ultimately decided that their only viable security option post-World War Two was to come together.

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[stenbak]

Amazing video, thank you very much for doing this I learned so much

[adamskinner]

That was a wonderful lecture, informative and engaging that gives a much better understanding of this pivotal time in European and world history. WW2 has been widely examined (not always accurately) as the major event in the 20th century which it certainly was but understanding how and why Nato and the Soviet Block came about and dominated the next 45 years is a widely unknown part of our recent history that is worth examining.

[williamfitch]

Excellent. Considering the Cold War was the backdrop to the entire second half of the 20th century it gets very little mention overall. Thanks for posting this

[oneryrussian]

Predicting the future much easier than understanding the past :-)))

[maxheadrom]

Watching this in 2022 during the Ukrainian war. It seems Putin is not such a history buff as he boasts.

There's an excellent movie by Roberto Rossellini called "Germany: Year Zero". It's the saddest film I ever saw - sadder than Kieslowski's "Thou Shall Not Kill". The film made on the neo-realist fashion, in 1945, in Berlim with amateur actors. The film shows a bit of the post war destruction but the genius of Rossellini manages to tell both the story of how nazis raised to power and how Germany ended up after the war.

[jawsgodzillaawesome]

What all countries are in NATO? Because I have had an argument with my friend for the past hour that Belgium, Germany, Italy, and any other Western European countries are part NATO.