After NATO was formed, what was the USSR's reaction to this military alliance?
1 Answer
The Soviet reaction to the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was a show-exercise; they created the 'defensive' Warsaw Pact alliance of their own from nations they already controlled.
Explanation:
The Soviet Union was always partial to propaganda exercises and creating false appearances, and then declaring these as a truth to the world.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the military forces of the US and the UK demobilized as quickly as they could; shedding Wartime volunteers and draftees to return to civilian life and dismantling military formations. The USSR maintained very strong forces in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and East Germany.
The imbalance in forces, combined with the Soviets repeated violation of wartime agreements, and evidence of ruthless repression inside its occupied territories alarmed Western leaders (See Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech at Fulton in 1946). Western Europeans, having seen Hitler and Nazi Germany, were in no hurry to repeat the experience and agreed to collective defence to deter the USSR, first signing the Treaty of Brussels in March 1948, and then enacting NATO to bring in partnership with the US and Canada.
The Soviet Union had imposed its will in most of the areas of Central Europe it occupied, and essentially controlled military and foreign policy for Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria (East Germany -- like the West -- was still occupied). They didn't need a rival alliance until 1955, after West Germany was restored to its own government and joined NATO. As a result the USSR went through the appearance of creating a 'defensive' alliance and created the Warsaw Pact.
NATO survived the end of the Cold War in 1990, but the reluctant members of the Warsaw Pact shed their alliances with Russia as speedily as they could and petitioned for entry into NATO thereafter.
It should also be remembered that the Warsaw Pact has no secrets remaining... all its records and history are available. One point that is clear is that the USSR's idea of defence would be to begin with a devastating attack. NATO's premise that it existed to deter Soviet aggression was always valid.
