On March 18, 1949, the United States and its European allies announced their plans for an alliance, which they called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.

The Allies said their goal was to maintain peace and security. They agreed that an armed attack against any member of the Alliance would be considered an attack against them all, reports KosovaPress.

Opponents of the idea argued that the treaty would turn Europe into an armed camp that could ignite armed conflict with the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies.

One of the chief architects of the Atlantic Alliance, US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, responded to these complaints by declaring that only through military force could the Western Allies maintain peace.