ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that between 1949 and 1966 the First Berlin crisis, the Korean War, German rearmament, the missile gap, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the withdrawal of France from military NATO, the Alliance is continually almost routinely pushed to the political limit. On 4 April 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. On 9 May 1950 the French Cabinet approves the Schuman Plan, stating that world peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of a constructive effort proportionate to the dangers. On 28 October France introduces the Pleven Plan to the allies at a meeting of the NATO Defence Committee. NATO also embarks on the long road of enlargement. West Germany is invited to join NATO and on 24 October 1954, less than a decade after the end of World War II, Bonn formally joins the Alliance.
