The Cold War North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO
By 1949, the following European and Asian countries had Communist governments:
| Country | Leader |
| U.S.S.R. (Soviet Union) |
Joseph Stalin, Senior Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
| Czechoslovakia | Klement Gottwald, Chairman of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia |
| China | Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China |
| Poland | Bolesław Bierut, First Secretary of the Central Committee of Polish United Workers' Party |
| East Germany | the Soviet Zone of Allied-occupied Germany |
| Hungary | Georgi Dimitrov, General Secretary of the Bulgarian |
| Romania | Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, General Secretary of the Romanian Workers' Party |
| Bulgaria | Georgi Dimitrov, General Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party (1948–1949)
Vulko Chervenkov, General Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party (1949–1954) |
| Yugoslavia | Josip Broz Tito, General Secretary of the Yugoslav Communist Party |
| North Korea | Kim Tu-bong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers' Party (1946–1949)
Kim Il-sung, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers' Party (1949–1994) |
Korea became two separate nations after World War II. North Korea became Communist. In Indochina, Asian Communists were fighting against the French. Many free nations were worried. Many felt the U.S.S.R. might take over their country next.
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Ten European nations, the United States, and Canada banded together to keep the Communists from taking over. They formed an organization called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. They signed a treaty that said that each nation would help the other nations if they were attacked. |
Each nation sent soldiers to form a NATO army. General Eisenhower was placed in charge of this army.