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Article: When the chips were down, NATO allies rallied around U.S.; Iron Curtain: The Soviets respected the 'tripwire'
- Article from:
- Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque)
- Article date:
- September 8, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2002 Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque). Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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"The condition upon which God has given liberty to man is eternal
vigilance." - John Curran
Fifty-three years ago, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was
created when 12 Western democracies joined together in a military
alliance whose purpose was mostly defensive.
World War II was a fresh memory, but the greatest threat to peace
in 1949 was the Soviet Union, which had dropped an "Iron Curtain" -
in Churchill's memorable phrase - around the nations of Eastern
Europe, strangling their freedoms and rigidly controlling their
economic, cultural and political institutions.
The Western European democracies feared greatly that the Soviet
army, the largest in the world, would someday invade their ...