Here's everything you need to know about NATO, aka the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. What is the purpose of NATO? How did it get created? Why does it still exist long after the Cold War ended? Etc.
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Sources:
https://history.state.gov/milestones/...
https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/ind...
http://www.msz.gov.pl/en/foreign_poli...
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-z...
https://www.the-american-interest.com...

On April 4, 1949, the leaders of 12 countries in both North America and Western Europe got together in Washington, D.C. in response to the growing threat of the Soviet Union, a Communist country that had been fairly aggressive trying to spread its influence. By this time, the United States, under the leadership of President Harry Truman, had committed to helping countries fight dictators who had threatened personal freedoms or fight rebels who wanted to install Communist regimes. The U.S. gave money to the Greek government army during the Greek Civil War and gave money to Turkey to resist Soviet influence there. Communists were making gains in Italy, and, with the help of the Soviet Union, Communists overthrew and took over the government Czechoslovakia.
Not only that, but the United States and Soviet Union straight up went at each other, bro. In occupied Germany following World War II, the Soviet Union controlled East Germany and East Berlin and Britain, France, and the United States controlled West Germany and West Berlin, which was completely within East Germany- well, that’s, uh, a bit weird. A bit isolated, are ya, there West Berlin? A bit isolated indeed. Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union, started a blockade to Berlin so that the U.S., Britain, and France couldn’t get supplies and food to their peoples there. Well, the U.S. and Britain broke that freaking blockade by smuggling in food and supplies anyway. This was known as the Berlin Airlift, and it certainly made Stalin angry. Tensions became ridiculously high between the U.S. and the Soviet Union after this.

So anyway, yeah, back to April 4, 1949 and those 12 countries that met up in DC. What did they all have in common? They were all democratic countries that viewed the Soviet Union and Communism in general as a big threat. They thought they should probably unite to help defend each other. So they signed the North Atlantic Treaty, which was mostly a security agreement that said any military attack against one of the countries that signed the treaty would be considered an attack against them all. The twelve countries that signed it were the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Italy, Portugal, and Iceland. Well one of these countries, the United States, would end up pulling most the weight for this military alliance. Later in 1949, Congress approved $1.4 billion for helping to build up the militaries of the Western European countries.

In 1950, NATO got its first big test with the Korean War. NATO-led forces rushed to help South Korea fight North Korea, a Communist country backed by both the Soviet Union and China.

After NATO stepped in to help South Korea, it was able to push back against the Communist countries, eventually causing a ceasefire in July 1953. This set up a, you could say, very tense border, that’s really just a demilitarized zone located at the 38th parallel.

In 1952, NATO admitted Greece and Turkey. In 1955, it admitted West Germany, which promptly led the Soviet Union to form its own military alliance in retaliation. It got together Albania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and East Germany to all join what became known as the Warsaw Treaty Organization, aka the Warsaw Pact. In the end, the Soviet Union made most of the decisions in this alliance, even using the alliance to put down uprisings against it in member countries.

Anyway, back to NATO. During the Suez Crisis, NATO members Britain and France started some conflict in Egypt, and the United States was like “what the heck you doin’ Britain and France?!?” and they sorted it all out. I have a video about that Crisis and you should check it out after this. No, really, I’m not just saying that. Check it out.

In 1957, NATO accepted the idea of massive retaliation as a defensive measure. In other words, it said if the Soviet Union or any of its allies were to attack NATO members, it would be dropping some serious nukes on them.