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<\/p>\nThe British public was quasi unanimous in its support for NATO membership in 1949. Like many countries, it had been heavily afflicted by the two World Wars and faced multiple challenges in 1945. The prospect of being part of an alliance was seen as an opportunity to protect each other, collectively, from future adversaries. The United Kingdom continued to be a strong supporter of NATO throughout the Cold War and never doubted the value of belonging to a collective defence organisation. This support manifested itself in its policies, its willingness to participate in Alliance activities and its steadfast commitment, even during more testing times like the Suez Crisis.<\/p>\n
Being an island and an Empire with colonies spread across the globe, the United Kingdom\u2019s defences were heavily reliant on a traditional maritime strategy. The control of the seas was essential in protecting its territories and securing alliances with other powers. However, the two World Wars introduced a greater need for land forces. In the immediate post-war period, the United Kingdom had to maintain troops in West Germany and face the unrest in its colonies and protectorates. And there were still more challenges to come even when the country and its economy had been devastated by the Second World War and was still functioning on wartime rationing which were suspended in 1954. <\/p>\n
In 1946, in Missouri, United States, Sir Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955) famously stated in his speech, \u201cFrom Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.\u201d This marked the beginning of what was going to be a long Cold War.<\/p>\n
Ernest Bevin \u2013 A man with a plan<\/p>\n
A close friend of American presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, Churchill hoped to join the United States in building a post-war order that would limit Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s communist ambitions. In the United Kingdom, Ernest Bevin, Foreign Secretary under the newly elected Labour government led by Clement Atlee, shared the same hopes and convictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ernest Bevin was a staunch anti-communist, who fervently believed that the survival of the West depended on a union between Western Europe and the United States. Following the launch of the Marshall Plan in 1947, he was eager to show the Americans that the Europeans were prepared to defend themselves and unite to reduce the risk of another war. In March 1948, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom signed the Brussels Pact. It committed the signatories to come to one another\u2019s defence in the event of an attack \u2013 a principle that would be at the heart of the future North Atlantic Treaty. The Pact was also a signal to the United States, a way of persuading them to be part of an alliance.<\/p>\n
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, who had had a major role in helping to achieve Allied victory in 1945, was also a true believer in perpetuating the vital transatlantic link that had been established with North America during the Second World War. So when the Brussels Pact was established, he became the Chairman of the Western Union\u2019s Commanders-in-Chief Committee and was based at the military headquarters in Versailles, France. This defence wing of the Western Union was later absorbed by NATO, and Montgomery became NATO\u2019s first Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British public was quasi unanimous in its support for NATO membership in 1949. Like many countries, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-675814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}