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Warsaw Pact
Foreign Affairs, 1955-1970
In May 1955, representatives of the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania met in Warsaw, Poland, to sign the multilateral Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, otherwise known as the Warsaw Pact.
The alliance was to act as:
a Soviet counterbalance to NATO in East-West diplomacy,
a method to legitimize the Soviet presence in Eastern European countries where treaties with the Soviets had already been established, and
a mechanism to convey U.S.S.R. defense and foreign policy directives to its Eastern European allies.
The treaty specified that relations among the member countries would consist of mutual noninterference in domestic matters, and respect for the sovereignty and independence of each country, and provided a collective defense unit against possible aggressors to communist governance. The Soviet Union's vested interest was to protect itself from western aggressors, using East European governments as a buffer, and use its Red Army to uphold communist rule in those countries.
During General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's destalinization* of the U.S.S.R. following Stalin's death in 1953, he permitted the restoration of distinct national practices and military training for each member country's soldiers as the primary modi operandi of Eastern European military establishments. In addition, he allowed the removal of many Soviet Army officers and advisors from key Eastern European armies.
*In the course of denouncing Joseph Stalin at a public meeting one day, Nikita Khrushchev was interrupted by a voice from the audience: "You were one of Stalin's colleagues," the heckler declared. "Why didn't you stop him?"
"Who said that!?" Khrushchev roared. The room was quickly filled with an agonizing silence — finally broken by Khrushchev himself. "Now," he remarked in a quiet voice, "you know why." (anecdote.com)
Off-site search results for "Warsaw Pact"...
The Avalon Project : The Warsaw Security Pact: May 14, 1955 (1) New Times, No. 21, May 21, 1955, pp. 65-67 (the Warsaw Pact has been registered with the United Nations Secretariat, but an official English-language text of the pact has not yet been printed in the U.N. Treaty Series). InstrumWarsaw Pact has been registered with the United Nations Secretariat, but an official English-language text of the pact has not yet been printed in the U.N. Treaty Series). Instruments of ... http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/intdip/soviet/warsaw.htm
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