The Berlin Airlift and the foundation of NATO

Following the end of the Second World War and through the late 1940s, the growing threat of the Soviet Union and the principle of collective defence brought western nations closer together. The Berlin Airlift, the first confrontation of the Cold War, was a factor in this.

On 4 April 1949, as the Berlin Airlift continued, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed by 12 nations, including the US and the UK. This committed the signatories ‘to unite their efforts for collective defence and for the preservation of peace and security’ and to ‘agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all’.

On 12 May 1949 – the same day as the lifting of the Soviet blockade of Berlin – UK Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin submitted the North Atlantic Treaty for approval by the House of Commons. As Bevin said,

This blockade has happily been raised today, and I am convinced that the establishment of this closer link between the Atlantic nations has led to second thoughts about the tactics that had been followed regarding Germany, and particularly about Berlin.

The treaty was passed by the House of Commons, with 333 votes in favour and 6 against. On 18 May 1949, the treaty was debated and passed by the House of Lords, where Viscount Templewood [Samuel Hoare] highlighted the Soviet threat, stating: I suggest to your Lordships that in face of the present hopes and fears in Europe we must adopt the same attitude that we have maintained with the air-lift throughout the Berlin blockade.

The United States Senate ratified the treaty on 21 July by 82 votes to 13, and in the course of debate the Berlin Airlift was invoked by Matthew Neely, Senator from West Virginia: If further answers are desired by those who are too blind to see the fifth columns of communism marching and counter-marching over every great country in Christendom, inquiries should be made of the American aviators who recently completed the task of transporting to Berlin by air hundreds of thousands of tons of food and coal to save the inhabitants of that unfortunate city from starving or freezing to death as the result of Russia's perversity in preventing the delivery of these necessaries of life by truck and train.

As the post-war world took shape, NATO established itself as a key element in the new order. The western alliance and the Berlin Airlift interacted with each other, demonstrating western resolve to the Soviet Union, while also demonstrating to the west what could be achieved through unity of action.