NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established under the North Atlantic Treaty (Apr. 4, 1949) by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States.

1952 -Greece and Turkey entered the alliance.
1955 -West Germany (now Germany) Joined NATO.
1982 -Spain joined the group.
1999 -The Czech Republic,
Hungary,
Poland joined.
2004- Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined later, bringing the membership to 26.

NATO maintains headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

The treaty, one of the major Western countermeasures against the threat of aggression by the Soviet Union during the cold war, was aimed at safeguarding the freedom of the North Atlantic community.

The treaty provided for collective self-defense and was designed to encourage political, economic, and social cooperation. The organization was reorganized and centralized in 1952.