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[[File:Warsaw Pact.jpg|right|250px|thumb|]]
[[File:Warsaw Pact.jpg|right|250px|thumb|]]
The '''Warsaw Pact''' (''Officially the'' '''Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance''', ''Russian'' '''Договор о дружбе, сотрудничестве и взаимной помощи''') was a political and military organization made up of the [[communism|communist]] states of [[Central Europe]] and the [[Soviet Union]]. The Warsaw Pact was officially formed on May 14, 1955, in response to the integration of [[West Germany]] in to [[NATO]]. The Warsaw Pact effectively lasted until November 9, 1989, when the [[Berlin Wall]] fell<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1955warsawpact.html The Warsaw Pact], ''Fordham University''</ref> and officially ceased to exist on July 1, 1991.<ref>https://en.topwar.ru/184619-nachinali-s-glavnogo-k-30-letiju-samolikvidacii-varshavskogo-dogovora.html?ysclid=lqsvuozfqn526467192</ref>
The '''Warsaw Pact''' (''Officially the'' '''Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance''', ''Russian'' '''Договор о дружбе, сотрудничестве и взаимной помощи''') was a political and military organization made up of the [[Soviet bloc]], [[communism|communist]] states of [[Central Europe]] and the [[Soviet Union]]. The Warsaw Pact was officially formed on May 14, 1955, in response to the integration of [[West Germany]] in to [[NATO]]. During its existence only one military operation, the "Danube" Operation, was executed. The military intervention, also known as the [[Prague Spring]], was carried out on 21 August 1968. The Warsaw Pact effectively lasted until November 9, 1989, when the [[Berlin Wall]] fell<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1955warsawpact.html The Warsaw Pact], ''Fordham University''</ref> and officially ceased to exist on July 1, 1991.<ref>https://en.topwar.ru/184619-nachinali-s-glavnogo-k-30-letiju-samolikvidacii-varshavskogo-dogovora.html?ysclid=lqsvuozfqn526467192</ref>
==Background==
==Background==
==1980s==
==1980s==
In the 1980s the concept of maintaining constant readiness to conduct various activities was developed. The Warsaw Pact army had to be ready to conduct a world war (with or without the use of [[nuclear weapon]]s), and to conduct a number of local conflicts with the use of [[conventional weapons]]. A No-Nuclear First Strike doctrine was adopted. However, the possibility of conducting wide-ranging [[asymmetrical warfare]] activities was accepted.
In the 1980s the concept of maintaining constant readiness to conduct various activities was developed. The Warsaw Pact army had to be ready to conduct a world war (with or without the use of [[nuclear weapon]]s), and to conduct a number of local conflicts with the use of [[conventional weapons]]. A No-Nuclear First Strike doctrine was adopted. However, the possibility of conducting wide-ranging [[asymmetrical warfare]] activities was accepted.
==Dissolution==
To assent to the reunification of Germany, Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] ultimately agreed to a proposal from then U.S. Secretary of State [[James Baker (DOS)]] that a reunited Germany would be part of NATO but the military alliance would not move “one inch” to the east, that is, absorb any of the former [[Warsaw Pact]] nations into NATO.<ref>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F03c2978a-e903-461c-943e-8124481200b2_772x590.jpeg</ref><ref>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFs9pHl7XoAUzGW5.jpg</ref>
[[File:Schifrinson.PNG|right|350px|thumb|Gorbachev and Yeltsin agreed to collapsing the Soviet Union in exchange for a non-NATO expansion pledge. In 2021 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg denied such agreements ever existed or discussions even took place.<ref>https://www.rt.com/russia/544257-nato-boss-expansion-proposals/</ref>]]
On Feb. 9, 1990, Baker said: “We consider that the consultations and discussions in the framework of the 2+4 mechanism should give a guarantee that the reunification of Germany will not lead to the enlargement of NATO’s military organization to the East.” On the next day, then German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]] said: “We consider that NATO should not enlarge its sphere of activity.”<ref>https://consortiumnews.com/2022/01/28/the-tangled-tale-of-nato-expansion-at-the-heart-of-ukraine-crisis/</ref> Gorbachev's mistake was not to get it in writing as a legally-binding agreement.<ref>For years it was believed there was no written record of the Baker-Gorbachev exchange at all, until the National Security Archive at George Washington University in December 2017 published a series of memos and cables about these assurances against NATO expansion eastward.</ref>
{{quotebox-float|“U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s famous ‘not one inch eastward’ assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, was part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by [[Western]] leaders to Gorbachev and other Soviet officials throughout the process of German unification in 1990 and on into 1991, according to declassified U.S., Soviet, German, British and French documents …
The documents show that multiple national leaders were considering and rejecting Central and Eastern European membership in NATO as of early 1990 and through 1991, that discussions of NATO in the context of German unification negotiations in 1990 were not at all narrowly limited to the status of [[East German]] territory, and that subsequent Soviet and Russian complaints about being misled about NATO expansion were founded in written contemporaneous memcons and telcons at the highest levels. … The documents reinforce former CIA Director [[Robert Gates]]’s criticism of ‘pressing ahead with expansion of NATO eastward [in the 1990s], when Gorbachev and others were led to believe that wouldn’t happen.’ …
President [[George H.W. Bush]] had assured Gorbachev during the Malta summit in December 1989 that the U.S. would not take advantage (‘I have not jumped up and down on the [[Berlin Wall]]”) of the revolutions in Eastern Europe to harm Soviet interests.’”<ref>https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early</ref>}}
The minutes of a March 6, 1991 meeting in [[Bonn]], [[West Germany]] between political directors of the foreign ministries of the US, UK, France, and Germany contain multiple references to “2+4” talks on German unification in which Western officials made it “clear” to the Soviet Union that NATO would not push into territory east of Germany. “We made it clear to the Soviet Union – in the 2+4 talks, as well as in other negotiations – that we do not intend to benefit from the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe,” the document in British foreign ministry archives quotes US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Canada Raymond Seitz. “NATO should not expand to the east, either officially or unofficially,” Seitz added. A British representative also mentions the existence of a “general agreement” that membership of NATO for [[eastern Europe]]an countries is “unacceptable.”<ref>https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/nato-osterweiterung-aktenfund-stuetzt-russische-version-a-1613d467-bd72-4f02-8e16-2cd6d3285295</ref>
==References==
==References==