NATO

On of the results of the Berlin Blockade was the creation of NATO. The crisis in Berlin illustrated the need for a more coordinated approach by the West in order to prepare for the possibility of Soviet aggression. In April 1949 as a result of talks with Canada and other western allies the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

NATO was significant because it involved the USA in a military alliance during peacetime and as a result signalled to the USSR that it was not about to return to a position of isolationism.

The guiding principle of NATO was that an attack on one of its members was an attack on all. A NATO command was established to coordinate the defence of its members. Stalin viewed the creation of NATO as a deliberately provocative action.