One thing many wouldn't have expected in the Cold War was that the USSR asked to join Nato. Which seems a bit mad and so obviously it raised the question: why? To find out watch this short and simple animated documentary.

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The Cold War saw 2 sides face off in an ideological battle for the future.

In Europe and North America, the conflict is often discussed as being between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

But NATO predates the Warsaw Pact by 6 years, and during that 6 years, something interesting happened.

The USSR asked to join, Which raises a pretty obvious question, why?

So, in the 4 years prior to the establishment of NATO, the USSR and the Western Powers had a pretty rocky relationship.

The West was extremely concerned with the Red Army, given that it was absolutely massive and there were worries in Washington that the USSR may start conquering territory piecemeal and pick off the Western countries 1 by 1.

As such, the Western powers founded NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to protect themselves from any potential threats in the future.

Now, officially, this was a simple defensive alliance that anyone in Europe could be a member of and wasn't aimed specifically at any 1 nation.

Unofficially, though, it was the Communists' Askeri Club.

Now, the Soviets weren't silly, and its leadership was at this point filled with pretty shrewd diplomats who knew what NATO really was.

And when Stalin opted to follow in Lenin's footsteps and die, there was a chance for the USSR's foreign policy to pivot.

2 people important to this were Lavrentiy Beria and Vyacheslav Molotov, who came up with an interesting idea.

The first was the reunification of Germany on the condition that it become a perpetually neutral state.

In return for what was essentially the USSR giving up East Germany, the leaders of which were not consulted, the Soviet Union wanted to join the new European Defence Community which as the name suggests didn't include any non-Europeans.

Obviously, the Western powers would never go along with this and so when it was rejected to make it look like they were conceding something, the Soviets offered to join NATO.

This offer was semi-serious in that the Soviet leadership expected it to be rejected but had prepared for the eventuality that the Western leadership would get very drunk or something and say yes.

If the Western powers rejected Soviet membership, then they were admitting that NATO was in fact an anti-Soviet bloc, which would in turn allow the USSR to build its own alliance and give it much greater free reign in its foreign policy.

If the Western powers accepted Soviet membership, then NATO's character as an anti-Soviet alliance would change into a general European defensive 1.

And also, Germany would stay forever disarmed, which given recent events, was something that the USSR very much wanted.

As you'll be aware, the answer from the West was a no, not for want of Churchill trying, and the no was for the exact same reasons that the USSR wanted to join.

However, they weren't so open about the exact reason why and cited the USSR's non-democratic government and occupation of Eastern European nations for the negative response.

And so, the USSR was now free to act in retaliation and did so by forming its own alliance in 1955.

I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching with a special thanks to my Patrons...

James Bizonette, Kelly Moneymaker, Rob Waterhouse, Moe, Marvin Casal, Aaron the White, Jordan Longley, James Castaneda, Gustav Swan, Jerry Lambdin, Maggie Paskowski, Copper Tone, Rashid Ali, Winston Keywood, Mrs.

E, Spinning 3 Plates, Lexi Schwin, Matthew Shipley, Anthony Beckett, Robert Wetzel, Marcus Arsner, Korshow Wolff, Spencer Lightfoot and Charles I.


Speaker 0: The Cold War saw 2 sides face off in an ideological battle for the future. In Europe and North America, the conflict is often discussed as being between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. But NATO predates the Warsaw Pact by 6 years, and during that 6 years, something interesting happened. The USSR asked to join, Which raises a pretty obvious question, why? Why did the USSR want to join NATO?

So, in the 4 years prior to the establishment of NATO, the USSR and the Western Powers had a pretty rocky relationship. The West was extremely concerned with the Red Army, given that it was absolutely massive and there were worries in Washington that the USSR may start conquering territory piecemeal and pick off the Western countries 1 by 1. As such, the Western powers founded NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to protect themselves from any potential threats in the future. Now, officially, this was a simple defensive alliance that anyone in Europe could be a member of and wasn't aimed specifically at any 1 nation. Unofficially, though, it was the Communists' Askeri Club.

Now, the Soviets weren't silly, and its leadership was at this point filled with pretty shrewd diplomats who knew what NATO really was. And when Stalin opted to follow in Lenin's footsteps and die, there was a chance for the USSR's foreign policy to pivot. 2 people important to this were Lavrentiy Beria and Vyacheslav Molotov, who came up with an interesting idea. Let's make friends with the West. This plan involved several steps.

The first was the reunification of Germany on the condition that it become a perpetually neutral state. In return for what was essentially the USSR giving up East Germany, the leaders of which were not consulted, the Soviet Union wanted to join the new European Defence Community which as the name suggests didn't include any non-Europeans. Obviously, the Western powers would never go along with this and so when it was rejected to make it look like they were conceding something, the Soviets offered to join NATO. This offer was semi-serious in that the Soviet leadership expected it to be rejected but had prepared for the eventuality that the Western leadership would get very drunk or something and say yes. So why did they apply to join?

Well, the answer is simple. It was a win-win. If the Western powers rejected Soviet membership, then they were admitting that NATO was in fact an anti-Soviet bloc, which would in turn allow the USSR to build its own alliance and give it much greater free reign in its foreign policy. If the Western powers accepted Soviet membership, then NATO's character as an anti-Soviet alliance would change into a general European defensive 1. And also, Germany would stay forever disarmed, which given recent events, was something that the USSR very much wanted.

As you'll be aware, the answer from the West was a no, not for want of Churchill trying, and the no was for the exact same reasons that the USSR wanted to join. However, they weren't so open about the exact reason why and cited the USSR's non-democratic government and occupation of Eastern European nations for the negative response. And so, the USSR was now free to act in retaliation and did so by forming its own alliance in 1955. And thus the Warsaw Pact was born. I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching with a special thanks to my Patrons...

James Bizonette, Kelly Moneymaker, Rob Waterhouse, Moe, Marvin Casal, Aaron the White, Jordan Longley, James Castaneda, Gustav Swan, Jerry Lambdin, Maggie Paskowski, Copper Tone, Rashid Ali, Winston Keywood, Mrs. E, Spinning 3 Plates, Lexi Schwin, Matthew Shipley, Anthony Beckett, Robert Wetzel, Marcus Arsner, Korshow Wolff, Spencer Lightfoot and Charles I.

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Why Did the USSR Ask to Join NATO? (Short Animated Documentary)