Cold War: USSR Attempt To Join NATO

There was a time during the Cold War where the Soviet Union attempted to join NATO. NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is an intergovernmental military alliance that formed in April 4th of 1949. The alliance originally only had 12 countries. However, some consider NATO to have started in 1948 when the Treaty of Brussels was signed as a mutual defense treaty against the Soviet Union. This treaty was signed by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. However, this defense pact did not include the United States and future members of NATO. The 1948 Treaty was signed by: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/17/russia.iantraynor https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html Prince Charles of Belgium, as the reigning Prince Regent of Belgium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Charles_of_Belgium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_regent Vincent Auriol, President of France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Auriol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_French_Republic Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte,_Grand_Duchess_of_Luxembourg Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Wilhelmina_of_the_Netherlands King George VI of the United Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_George_VI_of_the_United_Kingdom Paul-Henri Spaak, Prime Minister of Belgium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul-Henri_Spaak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Belgium Georges Bidault, French Minister of Foreign Affairs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Bidault https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister_of_Foreign_Affairs_(France) Joseph Bech, Luxembourgish Minister of Foreign Affairs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ministers_for_Foreign_Affairs_of_Luxembourg Gaston Eyskens, Belgian Minister of Finance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_Eyskens Carel Godfried Willem Hendrik baron van Boetzelaer van Oosterhout, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carel_Godfried_Willem_Hendrik_baron_van_Boetzelaer_van_Oosterhout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Minister_of_Foreign_Affairs Ernest Bevin, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Bevin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_of_State_for_Foreign_and_Commonwealth_Affairs Jean de Hautecloque, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the French Republic in Brussels https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jean_de_Hautecloque&action=edit&redlink=1 Robert Als, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Luxembourg in Brussels https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Als&action=edit&redlink=1 Baron Binnert Philip van Harinxma thoe Slooten, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Netherlands in Brussels https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Baron_Binnert_Philip_van_Harinxma_thoe_Slooten&action=edit&redlink=1 George William Rendel, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty in Brussels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_William_Rendel It was ratified in Belgium April 3rd, 1948. NATO predated the Warsaw Pact (which will be discussed in a future article) by about 6 years. The USSR offered to join NATO even though it was pretty much created as an alliance against the USSR & the Red Army. Officially, this was a defensive alliance, however, it was supposed to defend against any Marxist-Leninist socialist movements. Two important Soviet politicians, Lavrentiy Beria and Vyacheslav Molotov, had an interesting idea of becoming part of NATO. The plan would involve the USSR giving up East Germany and reunifying Germany as a neutral state when the Soviet Union becomes a member of NATO. The likelihood of the USSR being accepted into NATO was slim and the politicians knew this. However, the Politburo (Highest worker's committee) did prepare in case NATO said yes. The idea was also based around the Stalin Note, a note from Premier of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin delivered to the Western Allies on March 1952 that proposed German reunification if German remained neutral. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxhLkwmSu98 https://www.worldcat.org/title/documents-on-germany-1944-1970/oclc/643516898 The obvious answer was 'no' and the Soviet Union responded by creating their own defensive alliance in the form of the Warsaw Pact. The request was specifically rejected by the United States and the United Kingdom. https://web.archive.org/web/20120311044021/http://www.nato.int/history/doc/5-Soviet-Union-s-request-to-join%20NATO/Soviet%20request%20English.pdf