The history of NATO - Video timeline transcript

Harry Truman
“If there is anything certain today,
if there is anything inevitable in the future,
it is the will of the people of the world,
for freedom and for peace.”
1949 Signing of the North Atlantic Treaty
1950 Korean War
1952 Greece and Turkey join NATO
1954 Germany is invited to join NATO
1955 Germany joins NATO
1955 Warsaw Pact established
1956 The North Atlantic Council approves the report of the “Three Wise Men”
Halvard Lange
Gaetano Martino
Lester B. Pearson
1956 Suez Canal crisis
1956 Hungarian revolution
1961 Berlin Wall built
1962 Cuban missile crisis
1966 France withdraws from NATO’s integrated military command
1967 NATO opens its new headquarters in Brussels
Paul Vanden Boeynants
1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia by five Warsaw Pact countries
1969 Apollo 11 lands; first man sets foot on the moon
1970s-1980s NATO prepares and exercises to deter potential aggression throughout the Cold War
1980 Start of Iran-Iraq War
1982 Spain joins NATO
1989 Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan
1989 Revolutions spread across Central and Eastern Europe: Berlin Wall falls
1990 Germany reunified
1991 Soviet Union dissolves: Warsaw Pact disbanded
1993 NATO launches no fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina
1994 NATO establishes Partnership for Peace programme
1995 Allies and partners send peacekeeping forces to Bosnia and Herzegovina
1995 Bosnia Accords signed in Dayton, Ohio
1997 Founding Act between NATO and Russia is signed
1999 Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO
1999 NATO launches Operation Allied Force to halt the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Kosovo
2000 First formal meetings between the North Atlantic Council and the European Union’s interim Political and Security Committee
2001 Terrorist attacks in the United States
Lord Robertson
2001 Article 5 invoked for the first time in NATO’s history after the attacks of September 11
2001 NATO deploys AWACS to mainland US
2001  NATO launches Article 5 Operation Active Endeavour in support of the United States
2002 NATO-Russia Council created
2003 NATO takes command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan
2003 Start of Iraq War
2003 Terrorist attacks in Istanbul
2004 ...and in Madrid
2004 Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO
2004 NATO-led mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina completed
2004 Start of NATO Training Mission in Iraq
2005 Terrorist attacks in London
2008 Georgia-Russia conflict
2009 Counter-piracy Operation Ocean Shield begins off the Horn of Africa and in the Gulf of Aden
2009 France returns to NATO’s integrated military command at the Strasbourg-Kehl Summit
2009 Albania and Croatia join NATO
2010 NATO adopts a new Strategic Concept
2010 Signing of the Declaration on Enduring Partnership by the President of Afghanistan and the NATO Secretary General
2011 Afghan forces start taking charge of their country’s security
2011 Arab Spring
2011 NATO launches and completes Operation Unified Protector for Libya
2012 Deployment of Patriot batteries to augment Turkey’s air defences as violence continues in Syria
2012 World continues to grapple with fiscal austerity
2012 Signing of the Joint Political Declaration between Australia and NATO
2013 NATO continues to enhance capabilities to face emerging security challenges
2013 NATO enhances global partnerships
2013 President Karzai announces Afghan security forces will take security lead nationwide
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
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