On March 18, 1949, the United States and its European allies announced plans for an alliance they called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.
The allies stated that their goal was to maintain peace and security. They agreed that an armed attack against any member of the Alliance would be considered an attack against all of them.
Opponents of this idea argued that the treaty would turn Europe into an armed camp, potentially sparking an armed conflict with the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies.
One of the main architects of the Atlantic Alliance, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson, responded to these objections by stating that only through military force could the Western allies preserve peace.
