How was the Warsaw Pact similar to and different from NATO?

In many
ways, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact were mirror images of
each other. NATO was established in 1949 out of fears that the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin
would aggressively try to spread communism into Western Europe. The Warsaw Pact was created in
response to NATO, which the Soviets understood as an organization dedicated to the destruction
of the Soviet Union. Each organization operated on the principle of "collective
security," i.e., that an aggression against one member nation was an aggression against
them all. If West Germany (which joined NATO in 1955) had been attacked by Soviet forces, for
example, other NATO countries would respond militarily.

As for differences,
many of these were related to the disposition of the nations that formed them. Generally
speaking, NATO was more of a voluntary organizationFrance, for example, pulled out of the
military arrangements of NATO in 1967. This was part of a broad nationalist political stance by
President Charles de Gaulle, who had become annoyed with several aspects of NATO. France pulled
out of its military obligations without major incident. On the other hand, the Soviet Union
actually used Warsaw Pact troops to crush uprisings in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The idea was
that the Warsaw Pact existed not just to deter outside threats, but to respond to internal
threats to communism.

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