[Pages S6680-S6681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

NATO

Mr. WICKER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the
attached article entitled ``NATO at 75'' by Alan W. Dowd in the
American Legion Magazine, be printed in the Congressional Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:

[From The American Legion Magazine, Oct. 2024]

NATO at 75

(By Alan W. Dowd)

Rather than scaring NATO to death, Vladimir Putin's war in
Ukraine has scared NATO back to life. For years, the alliance
had been drifting. But with Putin trying to rebuild the
Russian Empire and NATO returning to its core mission of
deterrence, there's broader support--and clearer need--for
NATO than at any time since the Cold War.

ORIGINS

After World War II, Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands
and Luxembourg forged a mutual-defense pact. Prime Minister
Paul-Henri Spaak of Belgium warned that any alliance without
the United States would be ``without practical value.''
1946-1948 Moscow violates agreements made at Yalta to hold
free elections in postwar Europe, supports communist forces
in the Greek Civil War, pressures Turkey for basing rights,
topples Czechoslovakia's democratic government and blockades
West Berlin. The United States and Britain respond with the
Berlin Airlift.
1949 The United States, Britain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark,
France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and
Portugal sign the North Atlantic Treaty. The heart of the
treaty is Article V, which declares that ``an armed attack
against one or more . . . shall be considered an attack
against them all.'' The U.S. Senate ratifies the treaty 82-
13.
1950 Moscow greenlights the invasion of South Korea,
supplies Pyongyang with weapons and sends advisers to support
the assault. NATO members Britain, Canada, France, Belgium,
Netherlands, Luxembourg and the United States--plus future
members Turkey and Greece--send troops to defend South Korea.
1951 NATO opens its headquarters near Paris. Taking the
reins as NATO military commander, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower
calls NATO ``the last remaining chance for the survival of
Western civilization.''

GROWTH

NATO has been growing since it was born--not by conquest
but by consent, not by the force of arms of its members but
by the desire for security of its aspirants. It's all there
in Article X: The allies may ``by unanimous agreement invite
any other European state in a position to further the
principles of this treaty.''
1952 Greece and Turkey join NATO.
1955 West Germany joins NATO. The USSR, Albania, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania
create the Warsaw Pact. The bloc fields 100 divisions, NATO
25.
1956 Soviet tanks crush Hungary's efforts to form a
multiparty government.

HEADACHES

In its second decade, NATO began to deal with internal
problems and external challenges.
1959 After Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev boasts about
his army's conventional advantage in Germany, Eisenhower--now
president--warns, ``If you attack us in Germany, there will
be nothing conventional about our response.''
To commemorate NATO's 10th birthday, Bing Crosby records
``The NATO Song,'' which cheers, ``NATO went on guard and
free men ceased to yield. We live again in peace and strength
behind the NATO shield.''
1960 Turkey's army seizes power.
1961 Spurred by an exodus from Eastern Europe, the Soviets
and East Germans wall off West Berlin.
1962 President John Kennedy in West-Berlin declares, ``Ich
bin ein Berliner!''
1966 French President Charles de Gaulle pulls France out
of NATO's military command and insists that NATO's
headquarters--and all U.S. military personnel--leave France.
Secretary of State Dean Rusk responds, ``Does that include
the dead Americans in military cemeteries?''
1967 NATO headquarters moves to Brussels. The Greek army
seizes power.
1968 Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia, ending the
Prague Spring.
1974 Greece supports a coup in Cyprus; Turkey occupies
Northern Cyprus.
1975 Under the Helsinki Accords, Western and Warsaw Pact
nations formally recognize the post-World War II political-
territorial settlement.

CROSSROADS

As the 1980s approached, NATO was at a crossroads: continue
to give ground to Moscow, or return to deterrence and answer
Moscow's aggression. A president and a pope helped the
alliance choose the right course.
1979 Moscow deploys SS-20 nuclear missiles in Central
Europe. Soviet troops invade Afghanistan. Pope John Paul II
declares, ``There can be no just Europe without the
independence of Poland,'' exhorting his countrymen: ``Do not
be afraid.''
1980 Led by Lech Walesa, Polish workers form the
Solidarity trade union. Warsaw institutes martial law.
Turkey's military retakes power.
1982 Spain joins NATO.
1983 Washington deploys Pershing II missiles in response
to Moscow's SS-20 deployment. President Ronald Reagan labels
the USSR ``an evil empire.'' Misreading NATO's Able Archer
exercise as the first move in a preemptive war, Moscow nearly
launches a preemptive strike.
1985 Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in
Geneva, the first of five summits that end the Cold War. 1987
in Berlin, Reagan demands, ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this
wall!'' Reagan and Gorbachev sign the Intermediate Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty, the first eliminating an entire class
of nuclear missiles.
November 1989 The Berlin Wall falls.

NEW MISSION

President George H.W. Bush declares, ``Let Europe be whole
and free. To the founders of the alliance, this aspiration
was a distant dream . . . now it's the new mission of NATO.''
1990 Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia declare independence
from the USSR. East and West Germany are unified. Germany
remains in NATO. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in
Europe is signed, sweeping huge numbers of conventional
weapons from Europe.
February 1991 The Warsaw Pact dissolves.
April 1991 Georgia declares independence from the USSR.
June 1991 Boris Yeltsin wins Russia's first popular
presidential election.
July 1991 Bush and Gorbachev sign the Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty, reducing nuclear arsenals.
August 1991 Hardliners launch an unsuccessful coup against
Gorbachev. Ukraine and Belarus declare independence.
December 1991 Gorbachev resigns; the USSR formally ends.

EASTWARD

With ethnic warfare flaring in the Balkans, many observers
called on NATO to play a stabilizing role. ``There is an
antidote to chaos,'' Reagan said. ``Its name is NATO.''
1993 Walesa, now Poland's president, warns, ``If Russia
again adopts an aggressive foreign policy, that aggression
will be directed toward Ukraine and Poland.''
1994 President Bill Clinton declares, ``The question is no
longer whether NATO will take on new members, but when and
how.''
Russia agrees to ``respect the independence . . .
sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine.'' Ukraine
surrenders its nuclear arsenal.
1995 NATO conducts airstrikes to protect Bosnian-Muslims
from Serbian attacks. NATO and Russia share peacekeeping
duties in postwar Bosnia.
1997 NATO and Russia renounce the ``threat or use of force
against each other.''
March-June 1999 Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary
join NATO. NATO launches airstrikes to protect Kosovo from
Serbia. After Belgrade agrees to ceasefire terms, Russian
forces attempt to seize an airfield in Kosovo. When NATO
commander U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark orders British Gen. Mike
Jackson to block the Russians, Jackson defiantly answers,
``I'm not going to start World War III for you.''
December 1999 Yeltsin resigns and installs Putin as
Russia's president.

ANOTHER CROSSROADS

After outlasting the Soviet Empire, wading into Eastern
Europe and laying the foundations of a Europe ``whole and
free,'' NATO would be forced to confront a range of new and
old threats in a new century.
2001 Al-Qaida attacks New York City and Washington, D.C.
For the first time, NATO invokes Article V, and deploys
planes to U.S. airspace.
2002 Washington and Moscow sign the Strategic Offensive
Reductions Treaty, slashing deployed nuclear missiles to
around 2,000 warheads apiece.
2003 Taking command of Afghanistan operations, NATO
continues to struggle waging war by committee: Italian
fighter-bombers deploy without bombs. Germany requires its
troops to warn enemy forces--in three languages--before
engaging. Non-NATO members Australia, Georgia and Sweden
deploy more troops than several NATO members. Germany and
France oppose U.S.-British efforts to secure U.N.
authorization to disarm Iraq. Turkey blocks U.S. forces from
transiting Turkish territory into Iraq. Eighteen NATO members
(plus Ukraine and Georgia) send troops to Iraq.
2004 Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania,
Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO.
2005 Putin declares, ``The demise of the Soviet Union was
the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the (20th)
century.''
2006 NATO urges members to invest at least 2% of GDP in
defense. Only eight members reach that target by 2022.

[[Page S6681]]

2007 Putin claims NATO's growth violates post-Cold War
agreements, calling it ``a serious provocation.'' Gorbachev
counters that ``the topic of NATO expansion was not
discussed'' as the Cold War thawed. Russia-based hackers
launch crippling cyberattacks against Estonia.
April 2008 Germany and France block Ukraine and Georgia
from NATO membership. Though NATO agrees that ``these
countries will become members of NATO,'' no timetable is set.
Due to disputes over Macedonia's name, Greece blocks
Macedonia from joining NATO. NATO endorses U.S. missile-
defense deployments in Eastern Europe.
August 2008 Russia invades Georgia. The U.S. Air Force
transports thousands of Georgian troops from Iraq to Georgia,
likely preventing Russia from taking Tbilisi.
2009 President Barack Obama cancels missile-defense
deployments in Eastern Europe. Warsaw calls the decision
``catastrophic.'' Albania and Croatia join NATO. France
returns to NATO's military-command structure.
2010 Washington and Moscow agree to New START, further
reducing nuclear arsenals.
2011 NATO enforces a U.N. no-fly zone over Libya.
Washington deactivates the Navy's North Atlantic-focused 2nd
Fleet.
2012 Washington deactivates the Army's Germany-based V
Corps.
2013 Washington withdraws every U.S. tank from Europe.
Britain announces the closure of its garrison in Germany.
2014 Russia seizes Ukraine's Crimea and arms separatists
in eastern Ukraine. Washington sends ``nonlethal aid.''
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko jabs, ``One cannot win a
war with blankets.'' Russia violates the INF and CFE
treaties. NATO allies Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark,
France, Netherlands and the United States conduct airstrikes
against ISIS.

WARNINGS

As the 2020s neared, two U.S. presidents openly expressed
frustration with NATO. Yet NATO would again prove its worth.
``If we did not have NATO today,'' Gen. James Mattis said in
2017, ``we would need to create it.''
2016 NATO establishes battlegroups to deter Russian
attacks against Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland. Obama
tells British Prime Minister David Cameron, ``You have to pay
your fair share.'' Suspecting a coup, Turkish President Recep
Erdogan arrests 40,000 Turkish citizens.
2017 President Donald Trump complains that NATO members
``aren't paying what they should.'' At the height of the Cold
War, the United States accounted for 56% of NATO's defense
spending; by 2017, it's closer to 70%. Montenegro joins NATO.
U.S. generals accuse Russia of arming the Taliban. Turkey
purchases Russian air-defense systems.
2018 Asked during a NATO summit, ``Would you leave us if
we don't pay our bills?'' Trump responds, ``I would consider
it,'' Washington reactivates the 2nd Fleet.
2020 The Republic of North Macedonia joins NATO.
Washington reactivates V Corps-Forward in Poland.
May 2021 Russian cyberattacks hit U.S. energy
infrastructure.
August 2021 President Joe Biden orders U.S. withdrawal
from Afghanistan. As operations come to a close, 74% of
troops deployed in the country that spawned 9/11 are not
American.
December 2021 Putin demands NATO not expand, cease
military activities in Eastern Europe, and withdraw forces to
where they were before Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic
joined NATO.

CORNERSTONE

With threats to the free world metastasizing, NATO
solidified its role not only as the cornerstone of America's
security, but as the coordinating hub for international
security.
2022 Putin launches his second invasion of Ukraine, an
all-out effort to seize Kyiv and erase Ukraine's
independence. NATO members rush military aid to Kyiv.
Although Ukraine isn't a NATO member, the allies recognize,
finally, that Putin's war threatens what the North Atlantic
Treaty calls the ``stability and . . . security of the North
Atlantic area.''
NATO establishes battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania
and Slovakia. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announces a near-
doubling of defense spending, declaring, ``The world will no
longer be the same.''
In a visit to Poland, Biden echoes Pope John Paul II,
urging Ukrainian refugees and their Polish hosts, ``Be not
afraid.''
Longtime neutrals Sweden and Finland seek NATO membership.
With Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand attending
the NATO summit, the alliance identifies China as a challenge
and commits to working with Indo-Pacific partners on ``shared
security interests.''
2023 Russia violates the New START Treaty. Washington
establishes Army Garrison-Poland.
Finland joins NATO. Turkey and Hungary delay Sweden's
accession. Germany deploys 4,000 troops to Lithuania; Britain
announces deployment of 20,000 troops to NATO's northern
flank. Putin deploys nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Allies unveil the NATO-Ukraine Defense Council.
2024 Sweden joins NATO. Twenty-three NATO members invest
at least 2% of GDP on defense. The United States and Germany
announce deployment on German territory of hypersonic weapons
and Tomahawk land-attack missiles.
On its 75th anniversary, NATO--now 32 members--calls Russia
a ``direct threat to allies' security.''

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