Protesters march against Nato summit

[3rdwaydem]

7. NATO was an effective alliance

which deterred the USSR and it's Warsaw Pact puppets from invading for over 40 years. With the collapse of the USSR, once classified archives indicate that even up until the era of Gorbachev, hard liners were pushing for an invasion. Even campaign medals had been prepared and sat in a Soviet wheyerhouse. Thankfully these were never awarded. However, the invasion plans were detailed and were entirely offensive in nature. They relied on the element of complete surprise and lack of any provocation by the West. Had the NATO alliance not remained steadfast, this might have occurred. He's a link to one of the articles about this: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a528121.pdf

I too had, in recent years, questioned the usefulness of NATO. Yet, given the recent actions of Russia in Ukraine, I think it still serves an important purpose.