Demonstration against NATO., Portland, Oregon, Jan. 19, 2023. Photo: Lyn Neeley.
By Steve Lalla – Apr 4, 2023
On this day in 1949, 12 countries signed the “Washington treaty,” making NATO official. The NATO military alliance was formed by the US to defend the property of the capitalists, colonizers, and corporations of the West against the growing popularity of revolutionary socialism, which threatened to expropriate and distribute the riches that the imperialists had accumulated over centuries of pillage and exploitation.
Although the original treaty stated that NATO was “founded on the principles of democracy,” original members included Portugal, ruled by the military dictatorship of Antonio Salazar from 1932 to 1968. NATO was quick to accept Greece as well, although the country was ruled by a military dictatorship from 1967 to 1974. Nor did NATO have a problem with the military coup in Turkey and subsequent three years of martial law, even though NATO had nuclear weapons placed in the giant Incirlik air base in Turkey.
Perhaps, in keeping with NATO’s founding anti-communist principles, these military dictatorships were to be encouraged, as they supplanted, terrorized, and exterminated leftist and socialist movements in their respective countries.
“Rather than a defence against possible Russian attack, NATO was partly conceived as a reaction to growing socialist sentiment in Western Europe… If not for US/British interference, communists, without Moscow’s support, would probably have taken power in Greece and won the 1948 election in Italy,” wrote Canadian historian Yves Engler. “In France the Communist Party won 30 percent of the first post-war vote, filling a number of ministries in a coalition government.”
Similarly, although the “Washington” treaty pledged that NATO was founded on the “rule of law,” the military coalition showed no compunction in bombing socialist Yugoslavia for 80 days straight without UN authorization in June 1999. When the US war pigs speak of the “rules-based order,” what they are actually referring to is a set of rules that the US itself makes up as it goes along, and then orders everyone else to obey.
And although, according to the treaty, NATO founders pledged “to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means,” NATO seemed pretty eager to bomb Libya’s infrastructure to smithereens for seven months straight, dropping over 30,000 bombs on the country and overseeing the assassination of socialist revolutionary Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Over 700 of those bombs were dropped by Canada’s military. Thanks to NATO’s “humanitarian intervention,” Libya was transformed from the African continent’s wealthiest country to one of its poorest and most unstable.
“Prior to the US-led bombing campaign in 2011, Libya had the highest Human Development Index, the lowest infant mortality, and the highest life expectancy in all of Africa,” wrote Garikai Chengu for Counterpunch. “Today, Libya is a failed state.”
In response to Western military aggression in the promulgation of the Washington treaty and formation of NATO, the United Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) convened the Warsaw Pact, a defensive alliance which never attacked, invaded, or bombed any outside nations.
Today, worldwide, resistance against the NATO war machine has never been stronger.
(Medium)
Steve Lalla
Steve Lalla is a journalist, researcher and analyst. His areas of interest include geopolitics, history, and current affairs. He has contributed to Counterpunch, Resumen LatinoAmericano English, ANTICONQUISTA, Orinoco Tribune, and others.
