The mutual defense pact that would become NATO at its outset was not about Russia at all. The Western European nations organized to prevent any more war, stating an armed attack on one would be considered an armed attack on all, with one eye towards Germany. Just as quickly, a new threat eclipsed the old: the Soviet Union took over Czechoslovakia and then doubled down by blockading Berlin. Still, for a year after World War II, Europe was allied against Germany while Russia ran free.

On this day, March 17, in 1948 the representatives from France and the UK, along with Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed an agreement to provide mutual defense in case of an attack on one of the signatories.

The original format did not last long – not seven months later the Western European powers met again to re-orient towards the East. This time they would include Germany, at least the Western portion of it, as well as the United States. It would take all of their combined political and military power to check Soviet progression in the west.