NATO

I have found myself thinking of NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation,in connection with various violence around the world.
As the second world war drew to a close, there was substantial concern over the future of Western Europe. Northern Italy was very strongly inclined to communism, and there was a real concern that the Russians fighting the Germans might join up with the Italian communist partisans. This concern was avoided, partly because of the sudden surrender of the German forces in northern Italy. However, the communist parties in France and Italy were so strong that for years there was concern about these countries' political future, especially that of Italy.
In 1949 America guaranteed Western Europe's future by creating NATO, which brought much of western Europe together under the guarantee of United States military support, an action which pushed into history America's pre second world war isolationism. Europe has thrived under the NATO umbrella, and the original need of it may have disappeared. It still exists, however, and is used for what appear to me to be quite different purposes from those which justified its creation.
I intend to explore some of these situations periodically.