One For All: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization

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Topic spans: 1947 - 2003

One For All: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Its goals were lofty and practical: to protect the free world and each other. Attacking one member of NATO meant you had attacked them all. At first, Canada played an important role as a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during the Cold War. But when the Communist threat died, some Canadians wondered why we were still part of the alliance. As NATO continues to redefine its mandate, Canada struggles to determine its own role.

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7 radio clips

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Can the United Nations protect the free world?

Broadcast Date: Sept. 15, 1947

After the Second World War, uncertainty reigns supreme. Former allies have become adversaries; Communism, not Nazism, is the new threat to global stability. Remarkably, Canadian Minister for External Affairs Louis St-Laurent becomes the first leader to publicly propose what will eventually become the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a security pact between the Western nations.

Can the United Nations protect the free world?

• The United Nations was conceived during the Second World War when 26 countries pledged to continue their alliance in battling the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan.

• According to its charter, the United Nations seeks to:
- maintain international peace and security
- develop friendly relations among nations
- co-operate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights
- be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations

• After the Second World War, tensions between the democratic and communist countries escalated. The USSR successfully assumed control over Romania, Poland and Bulgaria. In February 1948, Josef Stalin's Red Army marched across Eastern Europe and staged a bloodless coup in Czechoslovakia. Canada, Britain and the United States responded immediately and met in secret to discuss the possibility of a collective security pact against their UN partner, the USSR.

• "There are important divisions of opinion that might make our hopes of success look pretty flimsy but there is a worldwide demand for a strong and efficient organization for peace and we have to think that failure is impossible. It will require clear thinking and careful acting and we must keep in view the necessity for the sake of all mankind, of not permitting the creation of two worlds, one out to destroy the other." — External Affairs Minister Louis St-Laurent to the Toronto Star, Sept. 16, 1947.

Can the United Nations protect the free world?

Medium: Radio

Program: CBC Radio News

Broadcast Date: Sept. 15, 1947

Reporter: Willson Woodside

Duration: 2:36

Photo: George Hunter / National Film Board of Canada / Library and Archives Canada / PA-143182

Last updated:
Sept. 5, 2008

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