Warsaw Pact  

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-The "'''Iron Curtain'''" was the symbolic, ideological, and physical boundary dividing [[Europe]] into two separate areas from the end of [[World War II]] until the end of the [[Cold War]], roughly 1945 to 1991. At both sides of the Iron Curtain, the states developed their own international economic and military alliances, [[COMECON]] with the [[Warsaw Pact]] on the east side with the [[USSR]] as most important member, and the [[NATO]] and the [[European Community]] on the west side, with the [[United States]].+{{distinguish|Warsaw Convention (airlines)|Treaty of Warsaw (1970)|Grand Duchy of Warsaw}}
 +{{Further|Cold War}}
 +{{Infobox organization
 +| name = Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance
 +| native_name = {{lang-rus|Договор о дружбе, сотрудничестве и взаимной помощи}}
 +| image = Warsaw Pact Logo.svg
 +| image_size = 80px
 +| map = Map of Warsaw Pact countries.png
 +| map_caption = Members of the Warsaw Pact
 +| abbreviation =
 +| motto = {{lang|ru|''Союз мира и социализма''}}{{spaces|2}}<small>(Russian)</small><br />"Union of peace and socialism"
 +| formation = 14 May 1955
 +| extinction = 1 July 1991
 +| type = Military Alliance
 +| headquarters = [[Warsaw]], [[People's Republic of Poland|Poland]] <br><small>(Command and Control HQ)</small> <br> [[Moscow]], [[Soviet Union]] <br><small>(Military HQ)</small>
 +| membership =
 +{{flagicon|Bulgaria|1946}} [[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]]<br>
 +{{flagicon|Czechoslovakia}} [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]]<br>
 +{{flagicon|East Germany}} [[East Germany]]<br>
 +{{flagicon|Hungary}} [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]]<br>
 +{{flagicon|Poland}} [[People's Republic of Poland|Poland]]<br>
 +{{flagicon|Romania|1952}} [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]]<br>
 +{{flagicon|Soviet Union}} [[Soviet Union]]<br>
 +{{flagicon|Albania|1946}} [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]]<small>(withdrew in 1968)</small>
 +| leader_title = [[Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization|Supreme Commander]]
 +| leader_name = Petr Lushev (last)
 +| leader_title2 = [[Chief of Combined Staff of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization|Chief of Combined Staff]]
 +| leader_name2 = Vladimir Lobov (last)
 +}}
 +{{Eastern Bloc sidebar}}
 +[[File:Logo The Warsaw Pact.jpg|thumb|200px|Logo Military unit Organization The Warsaw Pact. ''Union of peace and socialism'']]
 +The '''Warsaw Pact''' (formally, the '''Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance''', sometimes, informally '''WarPac''', akin in format to [[NATO]])<ref name="Text of Warsaw Pact">{{cite web|url=http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20219/volume-219-I-2962-Other.pdf|title=Text of Warsaw Pact|publisher=United Nations Treaty Collection|accessdate=2013-08-22}}</ref> was a [[collective defense]] treaty among eight [[communist state]]s of [[Central and Eastern Europe]] in existence during the [[Cold War]]. The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the [[Council for Mutual Economic Assistance]] (CoMEcon), the regional economic organization for the communist States of Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was in part a Soviet military reaction to the integration of [[West Germany]]<ref name="NATO Transformed: The Alliance's New Roles in International Security"/> into [[NATO]] in 1955 per the [[Paris Pacts]] of 1954,<ref name="The Future of European Alliance Systems"/><ref name="christopher"/><ref name="enclopedia"/> but was primarily motivated by Soviet desires to maintain control over military forces in Central and Eastern Europe;<ref name="Warsaw Pact: Wartime Status-Instruments of Soviet Control"/> in turn (according to The Warsaw Pact's preamble) meant to maintain peace in Europe, guided by the objective points and principles of the Charter of the United Nations (1945). After the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, the alliance was transformed into the subsequent Collective Security Treaty Organization, or [[Collective Security Treaty Organization|CSTO]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Полный текст Варшавского Договора (1955)|url=http://www.law.edu.ru/norm/norm.asp?normID=1168226|work=The Warsaw Pact (1955) - Official version of the document|publisher=Дирекция портала "Юридическая Россия"|accessdate=15 January 2014}}</ref>
-The Iron Curtain took the shape of border defenses between the countries of Western and Eastern Europe, most notably the [[Berlin Wall]], which served as a longtime symbol of the Iron Curtain altogether.+==Nomenclature==
-== See also ==+[[File:Warsaw-stamp.jpg|thumb|'''Soviet philatelic commemoration:''' At its 20th anniversary in 1975, the Warsaw Pact remains ''On Guard for Peace and Socialism''.]]
-* [[Berlin Wall]]+In the [[Western culture#The Cold War West|Western Bloc]], the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance is often called the Warsaw Pact [[military alliance]]; abbreviated WAPA, Warpac, and WP. Elsewhere, in the former member states, the Warsaw Treaty is known as:
-* [[Cold War]]+* {{lang-al|Pakti i miqësisë, bashkëpunimit dhe i ndihmës së përbashkët}}
-* [[Danube River Conference of 1948]]+* {{lang-bg|Договор за дружба, сътрудничество и взаимопомощ}}
-* [[Eastern Bloc]]+** [[Romanization of Bulgarian|Romanized Bulgarian]]: ''Dogovor za druzhba, satrudnichestvo i vzaimopomosht''
-* [[Removal of Hungary's border fence]]+* {{lang-cs|Smlouva o přátelství, spolupráci a vzájemné pomoci}}
-* [[Revolutions of 1989]]+* {{lang-sk|Zmluva o priateľstve, spolupráci a vzájomnej pomoci}}
-* [[Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc]]+* {{lang-de|link=no|Vertrag über Freundschaft, Zusammenarbeit und gegenseitigen Beistand}}
-* [[Western betrayal]]+* {{lang-hu|Barátsági, együttműködési és kölcsönös segítségnyújtási szerződés}}
 +* {{lang-pl|Układ o przyjaźni, współpracy i pomocy wzajemnej}}
 +* {{lang-ro|Tratatul de prietenie, cooperare şi asistenţă mutuală}}
 +* {{lang-rus|Договор о дружбе, сотрудничестве и взаимной помощи}}
 +** [[Romanization of Russian|Romanized Russian]]: ''Dogovor o druzhbe, sotrudnichestve i vzaimnoy pomoshchi''
-'''Post Cold War:'''+==Structure==
-* [[European Green Belt]], a body of conservationists preserving the former Iron Curtain security zone which has become a wildlife preserve+The Warsaw Treaty's organization was two-fold: the [[Political Consultative Committee]] handled political matters, and the Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces controlled the assigned multi-national forces, with headquarters in Warsaw, Poland. Furthermore, the [[Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization]] was also a First Deputy [[Minister of Defence (Soviet Union)|Minister of Defense of the USSR]], and the [[Chief of Combined Staff of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization]] was also a First Deputy [[Chief of the General Staff (Russia)#Chiefs of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces (1946–1991)|Chief of the General Staff]] of the [[Soviet Armed Forces|Armed Forces]] of the USSR. Therefore, although ostensibly an international [[collective security]] alliance, the USSR dominated the Warsaw Treaty armed forces.<ref name="The Soviet Army in the Cold War Years (1945–1991)"/>
-* [[Iron Curtain Trail]], a long-distance cycling route within the European Green Belt+ 
 +==Strategy==
 +The strategy behind the formation of the Warsaw Pact was driven by the desire of the [[Soviet Union]] to dominate Central and Eastern Europe. This policy was driven by ideological and geostrategic reasons. Ideologically, the Soviet Union arrogated the right to define socialism and communism and act as the leader of the global socialist movement. A corollary to this idea was the necessity of intervention if a country appeared to be violating core socialist ideas and Communist Party functions, which was explicitly stated in the [[Brezhnev Doctrine]].<ref name="The Brezhnev Doctrine and Communist Ideology"/> Geostrategic principles also drove the Soviet Union to prevent invasion of its territory by Western European powers, which had occurred most recently by [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Nazi Germany]] in 1941. The invasion launched by [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] had been exceptionally brutal and the USSR emerged from the [[Second World War]] in 1945 with the greatest total casualties of any participant in the war, suffering an estimated [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|27 million killed]] along with the destruction of much of the nation's industrial capacity.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}}
 + 
 +==History==
 + 
 +===Beginnings===
 +[[File:Military power of NATO and the Warsaw Pact states in 1973.svg|thumb|'''The Cold War (1945–90):''' NATO vs. the Warsaw Pact, the status of forces in 1973]]
 +In March 1954, the USSR, fearing "the restoration of German Militarism" in West Germany, requested admission to NATO.<ref name="soviet request nato"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/04/03/f-nato-fast-facts.html|date=6 April 2009|title=Fast facts about NATO|publisher=[[CBC News]]|accessdate=16 July 2011}}</ref><ref name="soviet request nato frus"/> By then, laws had already been passed in West Germany ending [[denazification]] <ref>Art, David, ''The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 53-55</ref>{{sfn|Wahl|2007|p=92-108}} and the [[Gehlen Organization]], predecessor of the [[Bundesnachrichtendienst|West German Federal Intelligence Service]], was fully operative and employing hundreds of [[ex-Nazis]].<ref>Höhne, Heinz; Zolling, Hermann, ''The General Was a Spy: The Truth about General Gehlen and His Spy Ring'', New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan 1972, p. 31</ref>
 + 
 +The Soviet request to join NATO arose in the aftermath of the [[Berlin Conference (1954)|Berlin Conference]] of January–February 1954. Soviet foreign minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov|Molotov]] made different proposals to have [[German reunification|Germany reunified]]{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=197,201}} and elections for a pan-German government,{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=202}} under conditions of withdrawal of the [[Four Powers|four powers]] armies and German neutrality,{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=197–198, 203, 212}} but all were refused by the other foreign ministers, [[John Foster Dulles|Dulles]] (USA), [[Anthony Eden|Eden]] (UK) and [[Georges Bidault|Bidault]] (France).{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=211–212, 216}} Proposals for the reunification of Germany were nothing new: earlier in 1952, [[Stalin Note|talks about a German reunification]] ended after the United Kingdom, France, and the United States insisted that a unified Germany should not be neutral and should be free to join the [[European Defence Community]] and rearm.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}}
 + 
 +Consequently Molotov, fearing that EDC would be directed in the future against the USSR therefore "seeking to prevent the formation of groups of European States directed against other European States",<ref name="molotov proposal europe"/> made a proposal for a General European Treaty on Collective Security in Europe "open to all European States without regard as to their social systems"<ref name="molotov proposal europe"/> which would have included the unified Germany (thus making the [[European Defence Community|EDC]] – perceived by the USSR as a threat – unusable). But again, Eden, Dulles and Bidault opposed the proposal.{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=214}}
 + 
 +One month later, the proposed European Treaty was rejected not only by supporters of the [[European Defence Community|EDC]] but also by western opponents of the European Defense Community (like French [[Gaullist]] leader Palewski) who perceived it as "unacceptable in its present form because it excludes the USA from participation in the collective security system in Europe".<ref name="molotov proposal nato"/> The Soviets then decided to make a new proposal to the governments of the USA, UK and France stating to accept the participation of the USA in the proposed General European Agreement.<ref name="molotov proposal nato"/> And considering that another argument deployed against the Soviet proposal was that it was perceived by western powers as "directed against the North Atlantic Pact and its liquidation",<ref name="molotov proposal nato"/>{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=216,}} the Soviets decided to declare their "readiness to examine jointly with other interested parties the question of the participation of the USSR in the North Atlantic bloc", specifying that "the admittance of the USA into the General European Agreement should not be conditional on the three western powers agreeing to the USSR joining the North Atlantic Pact".<ref name="molotov proposal nato"/>
 + 
 +Again all proposals, including the request to join NATO, were rejected by UK, US, and French governments shortly after.<ref name="soviet request nato frus"/><ref name="soviet request nato reply"/> Emblematic was the position of British General [[Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay|Hastings Ismay]], supporter of NATO expansion, who said that NATO "must grow until the whole free world gets under one umbrella."<ref>Jordan, p. 65</ref> He opposed the request to join NATO made by the USSR in 1954<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/jun/17/russia.iantraynor</ref> saying that "the Soviet request to join NATO is like an unrepentant burglar requesting to join the police force"<!-- punctuation in original -->.<ref name="soviet request nato note"/>
 + 
 +In April 1954 [[Konrad Adenauer|Adenauer]] made his first visit to the USA meeting [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] and [[John Foster Dulles|Dulles]]. Ratification of [[European Defence Community|EDC]] was delaying but the US representatives made it clear to Adenauer that EDC would have to become a part of [[NATO]].{{sfn|Adenauer|1966a|p=662}}
 + 
 +Memories of the Nazi occupation were still strong, and the rearmament of Germany was feared by France too.<ref name="EDC refusal"/> On 30 August 1954 French Parliament rejected the EDC, thus ensuring its failure<ref name="EDC failure"/> and blocking a major objective of US policy towards Europe: to associate Germany militarily with the West.<ref name="Alternatives to EDC"/> The US Department of State started to elaborate alternatives: Germany would be invited to join NATO or, in the case of French obstructionism, strategies to circumvent a French veto would be implemented in order to obtain a German rearmament outside NATO.<ref name="german rearmament"/>
 + 
 +On [[London and Paris Conferences|23 October 1954]] – only nine years after Allies (UK, USA and USSR) defeated [[Nazi Germany]] ending [[World War II]] in Europe – the Federal Republic of Germany was finally admitted to the North Atlantic Pact. The incorporation of [[West Germany]] into the organization on 9 May 1955 was described as "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent" by [[Halvard Lange]], [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (Norway)|Foreign Affairs Minister of Norway]] at the time.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/9/newsid_2519000/2519979.stm|title=West Germany accepted into Nato|work=BBC News|date=9 May 1955|accessdate=17 January 2012}}</ref>
 + 
 +On 14 May 1955, the USSR and other seven European countries "reaffirming their desire for the establishment of a system of European collective security based on the participation of all European states irrespective of their social and political systems"<ref name="warsaw treaty text"/> established the Warsaw Pact in response to the integration of the Federal Republic of Germany into [[NATO]], declaring that: "a remilitarized Western Germany and the integration of the latter in the North-Atlantic bloc [...] increase the danger of another war and constitutes a threat to the national security of the peaceable states; [...] in these circumstances the peaceable European states must take the necessary measures to safeguard their security".<ref name="warsaw treaty text"/>
 + 
 +===Members===
 +{{unreferenced|date=June 2014}}
 +The eight member countries of the Warsaw Pact pledged the mutual defense of any member who would be attacked. Relations among the treaty signatories were based upon mutual [[non-interventionism|non-intervention]] in the internal affairs of the member countries, respect for [[national sovereignty]], and political independence. However, almost all governments of those members states were indirectly controlled by the Soviet Union.
 + 
 +The founding signatories to the '''Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance''' consisted of the following communist governments:
 +* {{flagicon|Albania|1946}} [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|People's Republic of Albania]] (withheld support in 1961 because of the [[Sino–Soviet split]], formally withdrew in 1968)
 +* {{flagicon|Bulgaria|1946}} [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]]
 +* {{flagicon|Czechoslovakia}} Czechoslovak Republic ([[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]] since 1960)
 +* {{flagicon|East Germany}} [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]] (withdrew in September 1990, before [[German reunification]])
 +* {{flagicon|Hungary|1949}} [[People's Republic of Hungary]]
 +* {{flagicon|Poland}} [[People's Republic of Poland]] (withdrew on January 1, 1990)
 +* {{flagicon|Romania|1952}} [[Communist Romania|People's Republic of Romania]] (after 1965 the Socialist Republic of Romania)
 +* {{flagicon|Soviet Union}} [[Soviet Union|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]]
 + 
 +In July 1963 the [[Mongolian People's Republic]] asked to join the Warsaw Pact under Article 9 of the treaty. For this purpose a special protocol should have been taken since the text of the treaty applied only to Europe. Due to the emerging [[Sino-Soviet split]], Mongolia remained on observer status. Soviet stationing troops were agreed to stay in Mongolia from 1966.
 + 
 +===During Cold War===
 +{{Main|Cold War}}
 +{{unreferenced|date=June 2014}}
 +For 36 years, [[NATO]] and the Warsaw Treaty never directly waged war against each other in Europe; the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies implemented strategic policies aimed at the containment of each other in Europe, while working and fighting for influence within the wider [[Cold War]] on the international stage.
 + 
 +In 1956, following the declaration of the [[Imre Nagy]] government of withdrawal of Hungary from the Warsaw Pact, [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Soviet troops entered the country and removed the government]]. Soviet forces crushed the nation-wide revolt, leading to the death of an estimated 2,500 Hungarian citizens.
 + 
 +The multi-national Communist armed forces' sole joint action was the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]] in August 1968.
 +All member countries, with the exception of the [[Socialist Republic of Romania]] and the People's Republic of Albania participated in the invasion.
 + 
 +===End of the Cold War===
 +Beginning at the Cold War's conclusion, in late 1989, popular civil and political public discontent forced the Communist governments of the Warsaw Treaty countries from power – independent [[nationalism|national]] politics made feasible with the ''[[perestroika]]''- and ''[[glasnost]]''-induced institutional collapse of Communist government in the USSR.<ref name="dictionary"/> Eventually, the populaces of Hungary, [[Czechoslovakia]], Albania, [[East Germany]], Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria deposed their Communist governments in the period from 1989–91.
 + 
 +On 25 February 1991, the Warsaw Pact was declared disbanded at a meeting of defense and foreign ministers from Pact countries meeting in Hungary.<ref name="csmonitor"/> On 1 July 1991, in [[Prague]], the Czechoslovak President [[Václav Havel]] formally ended the 1955 Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance and so disestablished the Warsaw Treaty after 36 years of military alliance with the USSR.<ref name="Havel"/> The treaty was de facto disbanded in December 1989 during the [[Romanian Revolution|violent revolution]] in Romania that toppled the communist government there. The USSR disestablished itself in December 1991.
 + 
 +==Central and Eastern Europe after the Warsaw Treaty==
 +On 12 March 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined [[NATO]]; Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia joined in March 2004; Albania joined on 1 April 2009.
 + 
 +Russia and some other post-USSR states joined in the [[Collective Security Treaty Organisation]] (CSTO).
 + 
 +In November 2005, the Polish government opened its Warsaw Treaty archives to the [[Institute of National Remembrance]], who published some 1,300 declassified documents in January 2006. Yet the Polish government reserved publication of 100 documents, pending their military declassification. Eventually, 30 of the reserved 100 documents were published; 70 remained secret, and unpublished. Among the documents published is the Warsaw Treaty's nuclear war plan, ''[[Seven Days to the River Rhine]]'' – a short, swift attack capturing Austria, Denmark, Germany and Netherlands east of River Rhine, using [[nuclear weapon]]s, in self-defense, after a NATO [[first strike]]. The plan originated as a 1979 field training exercise war game, and metamorphosed into official Warsaw Treaty battle doctrine, until the late 1980s – which is why the People’s Republic of Poland was a nuclear weapons base, first, to 178, then, to 250 tactical-range rockets. Doctrinally, as a Soviet-style (offensive) battle plan, ''Seven Days to the River Rhine'' gave commanders few defensive-war strategies for fighting NATO in Warsaw Treaty territory.{{citation needed|date=October 2007}}
 + 
 +==Gallery==
 +<gallery style=widths="150px" heights="120px" perrow="4">
 +Image:Знак Варшавского договора.JPG|Badge Warsaw Pact. Union of peace and socialism
 +Image:Знак Варшавского договра ЮГ.JPG|Badge Warsaw Pact. Brothers in arms (1970)
 +Image:Знак Варшавского договора 1972.JPG|Badge A participant in joint exercises of Warsaw Pact "STIT" (1972)
 +Image:Значок Варшавского договора, 25 лет.JPG|Badge 25 years Warsaw Pact (1980)
 +Image:Значок ВВС Варшавского договора.JPG|AIR FORCE air forces Warsaw Pact
 +Image:Значок Варшавского договора ЩИТ-82.JPG|Badge Warsaw Pact. The participants of the joint exercises in Bulgaria (1982)
 +Image:Знак 30 лет Варшавского договора.JPG|Jubilee badge 30 years of the Warsaw Pact (1985)
 +</gallery>
 + 
 +==Notes==
 +{{reflist|2|refs=
 +<ref name="NATO Transformed: The Alliance's New Roles in International Security">{{cite book|first=David S.|last=Yost|title=NATO Transformed: The Alliance's New Roles in International Security|location=Washington, DC|publisher=U.S. Institute of Peace Press|year=1998|page=31|isbn=1-878379-81-X }}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="Havel">{{cite book|last=Havel|first=Václav|authorlink=Václav Havel|title=To the Castle and Back|year=2007|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|location=New York|isbn=978-0-307-26641-5|others=Trans. Paul Wilson|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=GaWwabF35Y0C&lpg=PP1&dq=editions%3AkJCaIwFlq-QC&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="The Future of European Alliance Systems">{{cite book|first=Arlene Idol|last=Broadhurst|title=The Future of European Alliance Systems|publisher=Westview Press|location=Boulder, Colorado|year=1982|page=137|isbn=0-86531-413-6 }}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="The Soviet Army in the Cold War Years (1945–1991)">{{cite book|first=V. I.|last=Fes'kov|first2=K. A.|last2=Kalashnikov|first3=V. I.|last3=Golikov|title=Sovetskai͡a Armii͡a v gody "kholodnoĭ voĭny," 1945–1991|trans_title=The Soviet Army in the Cold War Years (1945–1991)|location=Tomsk|publisher=Tomsk University Publisher|year=2004|page=6|isbn=5-7511-1819-7 }}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="christopher">Christopher Cook, ''Dictionary of Historical Terms'' (1983)</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="csmonitor">{{cite web|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/1991/0226/odate.html|title=Warsaw Pact and Comecon To Dissolve This Week|publisher=Csmonitor.com|date=1991-02-26|accessdate=2012-06-04}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="Warsaw Pact: Wartime Status-Instruments of Soviet Control">{{cite web|url= http://wilsoncenter.org/event/warsaw-pact-wartime-statutes%E2%80%94instruments-soviet-control|title=Warsaw Pact: Wartime Status-Instruments of Soviet Control|publisher=Wilson Center|accessdate=2013-10-05}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="EDC failure">{{cite web|url=http://www.cvce.eu/obj/debates_in_the_national_assembly_on_30_august_1954-en-b7be6e26-f125-4f20-af78-5699906abc9a.html|title=Debates in the French National Assembly on 30 August 1954|publisher=CVCE|accessdate=2013-08-01}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="Alternatives to EDC">{{cite web|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=goto&id=FRUS.FRUS195254v05p2&page=1164|title=US positions on alternatives to EDC|publisher= United States Department of State / FRUS collection|accessdate=2013-08-01}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="german rearmament">{{cite web|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=goto&id=FRUS.FRUS195254v05p2&page=1166|title=US positions on german rearmament outside NATO|publisher= United States Department of State / FRUS collection|accessdate=2013-08-01}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="EDC refusal">{{cite web|url=http://www.cvce.eu/education/unit-content/-/unit/en/803b2430-7d1c-4e7b-9101-47415702fc8e/c23dd653-ba51-4f7e-9bf1-2c33b347d339#fe1c3284-c9e9-4d0e-8ce1-cba01b013352|title=The refusal to ratify the EDC Treaty|publisher=CVCE|accessdate=2013-08-01}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="soviet request nato">{{cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/history/doc/5-Soviet-Union-s-request-to-join%20NATO/Soviet%20request%20English.pdf|title=Soviet Union request to join NATO|publisher=Nato.int|accessdate=2013-07-31}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="soviet request nato frus">{{cite web|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=turn&id=FRUS.FRUS195254v05p1&entity=FRUS.FRUS195254v05p1.p0531|title=Proposal of Soviet adherence to NATO as reported in the Foreign Relations of the United States Collection|publisher=UWDC FRUS Library|accessdate=2013-07-31}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="soviet request nato reply">{{cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/history/doc/5-Soviet-Union-s-request-to-join%20NATO/RDC%2854%29240-E.pdf|title=Final text of tripartite reply to Soviet note|publisher=Nato website|accessdate=2013-07-31}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="soviet request nato note">{{cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/60years/doc/5-Soviet-Union-s-request-to-join%20NATO/Transcript%20of%20Lord%20Ismay%27s%20Memo.pdf|title=Memo by Lord Ismay, Secretary General of NATO|publisher=Nato.int|accessdate=2013-07-31}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="molotov proposal nato">{{cite web|url=http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113924|title=MOLOTOV'S PROPOSAL THAT THE USSR JOIN NATO, MARCH 1954|publisher= Wilson Center|accessdate=2013-08-01}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="warsaw treaty text">{{cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/warsaw.asp|title=Text of the Warsaw Security Pact (see preamble)|publisher=Avalon Project|accessdate=2013-07-31}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="molotov proposal europe">{{cite web|url=http://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/2005/9/6/babc9886-6d90-4005-b266-d698e1d3aa4a/publishable_en.pdf|title=Draft general European Treaty on collective security in Europe — Molotov proposal (Berlin, 10 February 1954)|publisher= CVCE|accessdate=2013-08-01}}</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="The Brezhnev Doctrine and Communist Ideology">' 'The Review of Politics Volume' ', 34, No. 2 (April 1972), pp. 190-209</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="dictionary">''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'', third edition, 1999, pp. 637–8</ref>
 + 
 +<ref name="enclopedia">''The Columbia Enclopedia'', fifth edition (1993) p. 2926</ref>
 + 
 +}}
 + 
 +==Further reading==
 +* {{cite book|title=The NATO International Staff/Secretariat 1952-1957|first=Robert|last=Jordan|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London|year=1967|oclc=59029584}}
 +* {{cite journal|last=Heuser|first=Beatrice|title=Victory in a Nuclear War? A Comparison of NATO and WTO War Aims and Strategies|journal=[[Contemporary European History]]|year=1998|volume=7|issue=3|pages=311–327|doi=10.1017/S0960777300004264|authorlink=Beatrice Heuser}}
 +* Mark N. Kramer, 'Civil-military relations in the Warsaw Pact,' The East European component,' International Affairs, Vol. 61, No. 1, Winter 1984-85.
 +* {{cite book|last=Lewis|first=William Julian|title=The Warsaw Pact: Arms, Doctrine, and Strategy|year=1982|publisher=Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis|location=Cambridge, Mass.|isbn=978-0-07-031746-8}}
 +* {{cite book|last=Mastny|first=Vojtech|authorlink=Vojtech Mastny|title=A Cardboard Castle ?: An Inside History of the Warsaw Pact, 1955–1991|year=2005|publisher=[[Central European University Press]]|location=Budapest|isbn=978-963-7326-07-3|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Jm4L_b8CHycC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false|author2=Byrne, Malcolm }}
 +* {{cite book|last=Umbach|first=Frank|title=Das rote Bündnis: Entwicklung und Zerfall des Warschauer Paktes 1955 bis 1991|year=2005|publisher=Ch. Links Verlag|location=Berlin|isbn=978-3-86153-362-7|language=German}}
 +* {{cite book|last=Wahl|first=Alfred|title=La seconda vita del nazismo nella Germania del dopoguerra|publisher=Lindau|location=Torino|year=2007|isbn=978-8-87180-662-4|url=http://books.google.it/books?id=Cp0KPQAACAAJ&dq|language=Italian}} – Original Ed.: {{cite book|last=Wahl|first=Alfred|title=La seconde histoire du nazisme dans l'Allemagne fédérale depuis 1945.|publisher=Armand Colin|location=Paris|year=2006|isbn=2-200-26844-0|url=http://books.google.fr/books?id=f4VHp88-bpAC&dq|language=French}}
 +* {{cite book|last=Adenauer|first=Konrad|title=Memorie 1945-1953|publisher=Arnoldo Mondadori Editore|year=1966a|url=http://www.amazon.it/Memorie-1945-1953-Adenauer-Konrad/dp/B005SFPS36/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375399817&sr=8-1&keywords=konrad+adenauer+memorie+1945-1953|language=Italian}} – English Ed.: {{cite book|last=Adenauer|first=Konrad|title=Konrad Adenauer Memoirs 1945-53|publisher=Henry Regnery Company|year=1966b|url=http://books.google.com/books/about/Konrad_Adenauer_Memoirs_1945_53.html?id=-Nnjdi6b2wMC }}
 +* {{cite book|last=Molotov|first=Vyacheslav|title=La conferenza di Berlino|publisher=Ed. di cultura sociale|year=1954a|url=http://books.google.it/books/?id=Cd8tcgAACAAJ|language=Italian}} – English Ed.: {{cite book|last=Molotov|first=Vyacheslav|title=Statements at Berlin Conference of Foreign Ministers of U.S.S.R., France, Great Britain and U.S.A., January 25-February 18, 1954|publisher=Foreign Languages Publishing House|year=1954b|url=http://books.google.it/books?id=58kIAQAAMAAJ}}
 + 
 +==External links==
 +{{commons|Warsaw Pact}}
 +* [http://legacy.wilsoncenter.org/va2/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=home.browse&sort=collection&item=Warsaw%20Pact The Woodrow Wilson Center Cold War International History Project's Warsaw Pact Document Collection]
 +* [http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/ Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security]
 +* [http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/soviet_union/su_appnc.html Library of Congress / Federal Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbook Series / Soviet Union / Appendix C: The Warsaw Pact] (1989)
 +* {{loc}}
 + 
 +{{-}}
-'''Geography:''' 
-* [[Blue Banana]] at the west of the curtain 
{{GFDL}} {{GFDL}}

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}}</ref> was a collective defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon), the regional economic organization for the communist States of Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was in part a Soviet military reaction to the integration of West Germany<ref name="NATO Transformed: The Alliance's New Roles in International Security"/> into NATO in 1955 per the Paris Pacts of 1954,<ref name="The Future of European Alliance Systems"/><ref name="christopher"/><ref name="enclopedia"/> but was primarily motivated by Soviet desires to maintain control over military forces in Central and Eastern Europe;<ref name="Warsaw Pact: Wartime Status-Instruments of Soviet Control"/> in turn (according to The Warsaw Pact's preamble) meant to maintain peace in Europe, guided by the objective points and principles of the Charter of the United Nations (1945). After the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, the alliance was transformed into the subsequent Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO.<ref>{{

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Contents

Nomenclature

thumb|Soviet philatelic commemoration: At its 20th anniversary in 1975, the Warsaw Pact remains On Guard for Peace and Socialism. In the Western Bloc, the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance is often called the Warsaw Pact military alliance; abbreviated WAPA, Warpac, and WP. Elsewhere, in the former member states, the Warsaw Treaty is known as:

Structure

The Warsaw Treaty's organization was two-fold: the Political Consultative Committee handled political matters, and the Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces controlled the assigned multi-national forces, with headquarters in Warsaw, Poland. Furthermore, the Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization was also a First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and the Chief of Combined Staff of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization was also a First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Therefore, although ostensibly an international collective security alliance, the USSR dominated the Warsaw Treaty armed forces.<ref name="The Soviet Army in the Cold War Years (1945–1991)"/>

Strategy

The strategy behind the formation of the Warsaw Pact was driven by the desire of the Soviet Union to dominate Central and Eastern Europe. This policy was driven by ideological and geostrategic reasons. Ideologically, the Soviet Union arrogated the right to define socialism and communism and act as the leader of the global socialist movement. A corollary to this idea was the necessity of intervention if a country appeared to be violating core socialist ideas and Communist Party functions, which was explicitly stated in the Brezhnev Doctrine.<ref name="The Brezhnev Doctrine and Communist Ideology"/> Geostrategic principles also drove the Soviet Union to prevent invasion of its territory by Western European powers, which had occurred most recently by Nazi Germany in 1941. The invasion launched by Hitler had been exceptionally brutal and the USSR emerged from the Second World War in 1945 with the greatest total casualties of any participant in the war, suffering an estimated 27 million killed along with the destruction of much of the nation's industrial capacity.Template:Citation needed

History

Beginnings

thumb|The Cold War (1945–90): NATO vs. the Warsaw Pact, the status of forces in 1973 In March 1954, the USSR, fearing "the restoration of German Militarism" in West Germany, requested admission to NATO.<ref name="soviet request nato"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="soviet request nato frus"/> By then, laws had already been passed in West Germany ending denazification <ref>Art, David, The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 53-55</ref>Template:Sfn and the Gehlen Organization, predecessor of the West German Federal Intelligence Service, was fully operative and employing hundreds of ex-Nazis.<ref>Höhne, Heinz; Zolling, Hermann, The General Was a Spy: The Truth about General Gehlen and His Spy Ring, New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan 1972, p. 31</ref>

The Soviet request to join NATO arose in the aftermath of the Berlin Conference of January–February 1954. Soviet foreign minister Molotov made different proposals to have Germany reunifiedTemplate:Sfn and elections for a pan-German government,Template:Sfn under conditions of withdrawal of the four powers armies and German neutrality,Template:Sfn but all were refused by the other foreign ministers, Dulles (USA), Eden (UK) and Bidault (France).Template:Sfn Proposals for the reunification of Germany were nothing new: earlier in 1952, talks about a German reunification ended after the United Kingdom, France, and the United States insisted that a unified Germany should not be neutral and should be free to join the European Defence Community and rearm.Template:Citation needed

Consequently Molotov, fearing that EDC would be directed in the future against the USSR therefore "seeking to prevent the formation of groups of European States directed against other European States",<ref name="molotov proposal europe"/> made a proposal for a General European Treaty on Collective Security in Europe "open to all European States without regard as to their social systems"<ref name="molotov proposal europe"/> which would have included the unified Germany (thus making the EDC – perceived by the USSR as a threat – unusable). But again, Eden, Dulles and Bidault opposed the proposal.Template:Sfn

One month later, the proposed European Treaty was rejected not only by supporters of the EDC but also by western opponents of the European Defense Community (like French Gaullist leader Palewski) who perceived it as "unacceptable in its present form because it excludes the USA from participation in the collective security system in Europe".<ref name="molotov proposal nato"/> The Soviets then decided to make a new proposal to the governments of the USA, UK and France stating to accept the participation of the USA in the proposed General European Agreement.<ref name="molotov proposal nato"/> And considering that another argument deployed against the Soviet proposal was that it was perceived by western powers as "directed against the North Atlantic Pact and its liquidation",<ref name="molotov proposal nato"/>Template:Sfn the Soviets decided to declare their "readiness to examine jointly with other interested parties the question of the participation of the USSR in the North Atlantic bloc", specifying that "the admittance of the USA into the General European Agreement should not be conditional on the three western powers agreeing to the USSR joining the North Atlantic Pact".<ref name="molotov proposal nato"/>

Again all proposals, including the request to join NATO, were rejected by UK, US, and French governments shortly after.<ref name="soviet request nato frus"/><ref name="soviet request nato reply"/> Emblematic was the position of British General Hastings Ismay, supporter of NATO expansion, who said that NATO "must grow until the whole free world gets under one umbrella."<ref>Jordan, p. 65</ref> He opposed the request to join NATO made by the USSR in 1954<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/jun/17/russia.iantraynor</ref> saying that "the Soviet request to join NATO is like an unrepentant burglar requesting to join the police force".<ref name="soviet request nato note"/>

In April 1954 Adenauer made his first visit to the USA meeting Nixon, Eisenhower and Dulles. Ratification of EDC was delaying but the US representatives made it clear to Adenauer that EDC would have to become a part of NATO.Template:Sfn

Memories of the Nazi occupation were still strong, and the rearmament of Germany was feared by France too.<ref name="EDC refusal"/> On 30 August 1954 French Parliament rejected the EDC, thus ensuring its failure<ref name="EDC failure"/> and blocking a major objective of US policy towards Europe: to associate Germany militarily with the West.<ref name="Alternatives to EDC"/> The US Department of State started to elaborate alternatives: Germany would be invited to join NATO or, in the case of French obstructionism, strategies to circumvent a French veto would be implemented in order to obtain a German rearmament outside NATO.<ref name="german rearmament"/>

On 23 October 1954 – only nine years after Allies (UK, USA and USSR) defeated Nazi Germany ending World War II in Europe – the Federal Republic of Germany was finally admitted to the North Atlantic Pact. The incorporation of West Germany into the organization on 9 May 1955 was described as "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent" by Halvard Lange, Foreign Affairs Minister of Norway at the time.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On 14 May 1955, the USSR and other seven European countries "reaffirming their desire for the establishment of a system of European collective security based on the participation of all European states irrespective of their social and political systems"<ref name="warsaw treaty text"/> established the Warsaw Pact in response to the integration of the Federal Republic of Germany into NATO, declaring that: "a remilitarized Western Germany and the integration of the latter in the North-Atlantic bloc [...] increase the danger of another war and constitutes a threat to the national security of the peaceable states; [...] in these circumstances the peaceable European states must take the necessary measures to safeguard their security".<ref name="warsaw treaty text"/>

Members

Template:Unreferenced The eight member countries of the Warsaw Pact pledged the mutual defense of any member who would be attacked. Relations among the treaty signatories were based upon mutual non-intervention in the internal affairs of the member countries, respect for national sovereignty, and political independence. However, almost all governments of those members states were indirectly controlled by the Soviet Union.

The founding signatories to the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance consisted of the following communist governments:

In July 1963 the Mongolian People's Republic asked to join the Warsaw Pact under Article 9 of the treaty. For this purpose a special protocol should have been taken since the text of the treaty applied only to Europe. Due to the emerging Sino-Soviet split, Mongolia remained on observer status. Soviet stationing troops were agreed to stay in Mongolia from 1966.

During Cold War

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Template:Unreferenced For 36 years, NATO and the Warsaw Treaty never directly waged war against each other in Europe; the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies implemented strategic policies aimed at the containment of each other in Europe, while working and fighting for influence within the wider Cold War on the international stage.

In 1956, following the declaration of the Imre Nagy government of withdrawal of Hungary from the Warsaw Pact, Soviet troops entered the country and removed the government. Soviet forces crushed the nation-wide revolt, leading to the death of an estimated 2,500 Hungarian citizens.

The multi-national Communist armed forces' sole joint action was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. All member countries, with the exception of the Socialist Republic of Romania and the People's Republic of Albania participated in the invasion.

End of the Cold War

Beginning at the Cold War's conclusion, in late 1989, popular civil and political public discontent forced the Communist governments of the Warsaw Treaty countries from power – independent national politics made feasible with the perestroika- and glasnost-induced institutional collapse of Communist government in the USSR.<ref name="dictionary"/> Eventually, the populaces of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Albania, East Germany, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria deposed their Communist governments in the period from 1989–91.

On 25 February 1991, the Warsaw Pact was declared disbanded at a meeting of defense and foreign ministers from Pact countries meeting in Hungary.<ref name="csmonitor"/> On 1 July 1991, in Prague, the Czechoslovak President Václav Havel formally ended the 1955 Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance and so disestablished the Warsaw Treaty after 36 years of military alliance with the USSR.<ref name="Havel"/> The treaty was de facto disbanded in December 1989 during the violent revolution in Romania that toppled the communist government there. The USSR disestablished itself in December 1991.

Central and Eastern Europe after the Warsaw Treaty

On 12 March 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO; Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia joined in March 2004; Albania joined on 1 April 2009.

Russia and some other post-USSR states joined in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).

In November 2005, the Polish government opened its Warsaw Treaty archives to the Institute of National Remembrance, who published some 1,300 declassified documents in January 2006. Yet the Polish government reserved publication of 100 documents, pending their military declassification. Eventually, 30 of the reserved 100 documents were published; 70 remained secret, and unpublished. Among the documents published is the Warsaw Treaty's nuclear war plan, Seven Days to the River Rhine – a short, swift attack capturing Austria, Denmark, Germany and Netherlands east of River Rhine, using nuclear weapons, in self-defense, after a NATO first strike. The plan originated as a 1979 field training exercise war game, and metamorphosed into official Warsaw Treaty battle doctrine, until the late 1980s – which is why the People’s Republic of Poland was a nuclear weapons base, first, to 178, then, to 250 tactical-range rockets. Doctrinally, as a Soviet-style (offensive) battle plan, Seven Days to the River Rhine gave commanders few defensive-war strategies for fighting NATO in Warsaw Treaty territory.Template:Citation needed

Gallery

Notes

Template:Reflist

Further reading

External links

Template:Commons

Template:-




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Warsaw Pact" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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