NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION

organization developed to implement the North Atlantic Treaty, signed on April 4, 1949 (and entered into force on August 24, 1949), which sought to establish a military counterweight to the Soviet military presence in post-World War II eastern Europe. NATO continued thereafter as the primary collective-defense agreement of the Western powers in opposition to communist forces in Europe. Its members include Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany (or West Germany, 195590), Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. All were original signatories except Greece and Turkey, which joined in February 1952, West Germany, which joined in May 1955, Spain, which joined in May 1982, and the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, which joined in March 1999. France withdrew from the integrated military command of NATO in 1966, though it remained a member of the organization.