Here is How the Navy Celebrated NATO’s 70th B Day

4 April, 1949, the Washington Treaty was signed by 12 founding members. The goal: Collective Self Defense to Avoid any more devastating world wars.

Today marks 70 years of @NATO. Watch aircraft land and launch from the flight deck of #USSAbrahamLincoln. Its current deployment will include operations in #US6thFleet ready to support our #NATO allies. #NavyPartnerships #WeAreNATO #NATO70 pic.twitter.com/BQvVeUqxxO

— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) April 4, 2019

Only 14 articles long, the Treaty is one of the shortest documents of its kind. The carefully crafted articles were the subject of several months of discussion and negotiations before the Treaty could actually be signed.

However, once Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States had discussed these issues, they agreed on a document that would establish the North Atlantic Alliance.

On 4 April 1949, the 12 countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty at the Departmental Auditorium in Washington D.C., the city which lends its name to the Treaty

The Treaty committed each member to share the risk, responsibilities and benefits of collective defence – a concept at the very heart of the Alliance. In 1949, the primary aim of the Treaty was to create a pact of mutual assistance to counter the risk that the Soviet Union would seek to extend its control of Eastern Europe to other parts of the continent. The Treaty also required members not to enter into any international commitments that conflicted with the Treaty and committed them to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations (UN).