Warsaw Pact (1955–1991)

Introduction:

The Warsaw Treaty (1955–91) is the informal name for the Treaty of Friendship,
Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, commonly known as the Warsaw Pact. The treaty was a
mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe. It was
established at the USSR’s initiative and realized on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland.

In the Communist Bloc, the treaty was the military analogue of the Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance (CoMEcon), the Communist (East) European economic community. The Warsaw
Treaty was the Soviet Bloc’s military response to West Germany’s May 1955 integration to
NATO Pact, per the Paris Pacts of 1954.

Nomenclature:
In the West, the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance is often called the
Warsaw Pact military alliance; abbreviated WAPA, Warpac, and WP. Elsewhere, in the
member states, the Warsaw Treaty is known as:

 Albanian:
 Bulgarian:
 Czech:
 Slovak:
 German:
 Hungarian:
 Polish:
 Romanian:
 Russian:

Member States:
The eight member countries of the Warsaw Treaty pledged the mutual defense of any member
who is attacked; relations among the treaty signatories were based upon mutual non-interference
in the internal affairs of the member countries, respect for national sovereignty, and political
independence. The multi-national Communist armed forces’ sole joint action was the Warsaw
Treaty involvement of Czechoslovakia crisis, in August 1968.

All member countries, with the exception of the People's Republic of Romania (later Socialist
Republic of Romania), participated in the invasion. The founding signatories to the Treaty of
Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance consisted of the following communist
nations:
  People's Republic of Albania (withheld support in 1961 because of the Sino-Soviet split,
formally withdrew in 1968)
 People's Republic of Bulgaria
 Czechoslovak Republic (Czechoslovak Socialist Republic since 1960)
 German Democratic Republic (withdrew in September 1990, before German reunification)
 People's Republic of Hungary
 People's Republic of Poland
 People's Republic of Romania (later Socialist Republic of Romania between 1965 and 1989)
 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Structure:
The Warsaw Treaty’s organization was two-fold: the Political Consultative Committee handled civil
matters, and the Unified Command of Pact Armed Forces controlled the assigned multi-national forces,
with headquarters in Warsaw, Poland. Furthermore, the Supreme Commander of the Warsaw Treaty
forces also was the First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and the head of the Warsaw Treaty
Unified Staff also was the First Deputy Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
Therefore, although ostensibly an international collective security alliance, the USSR dominated the
Warsaw Treaty armed forces.

History:
On May 14 1955, the USSR established the Warsaw Treaty in response to the integration of the
Federal Republic of Germany into NATO in October 1954 — only nine years after the defeat of
Nazi Germany (1933–45) that ended only with the Allies' invasion of Germany in 1944/45
during World War II in Europe.

Nevertheless, for 36 years, NATO and the Warsaw Treaty never directly waged war against each
other in Europe; but the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies
implemented strategic policies aiming at the containment of each other in Europe, while working
and fighting for influence within the wider Cold War (1945–91) on the international stage.

Beginning at the Cold War’s conclusion, in late 1989, popular civil and political public
discontent forced the Communist governments of the Warsaw Treaty countries from power —
independent national politics made feasible with the perestroika- and glasnost-induced
institutional collapse of Communist government in the USSR.[6] In the event the populaces of
Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Albania, East Germany, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria deposed their
Communist governments in the period from 1989–91.

On 1 July 1991, in Prague, the Czechoslovak President, Václav Havel (1989–92), formally ended
the 1955 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance and so disestablished the
Warsaw Treaty after 36 years of military alliance with the USSR. Five months later, the USSR
disestablished itself in December 1991.
Eastern Europe after the Warsaw Treaty:
On 12 March 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO Pact; later,
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia joined during March 2004; and
Albania joined on 1 April 2009.

In November 2005, the conservative Polish government opened its Warsaw Treaty archives to
the Institute of National Remembrance who published some 1,300 declassified documents in
January 2006. Yet the Polish government reserved publication of 100 documents, pending their
military declassification. Eventually, 30 of the reserved 100 documents were published; 70
remained secret, and unpublished.

Among the documents published is the Warsaw Treaty 's nuclear war plan, Seven Days to the
River Rhine — a short, swift attack capturing Western Europe, using nuclear weapons, in self
defense, after a NATO first strike. The plan originated as a 1979 field training exercise war
game, and metamorphosed into official Warsaw Treaty battle doctrine, until the late 1980s —
thus why the People’s Republic of Poland was a nuclear weapons base, first, to 178, then, to 250
tactical-range rockets. Doctrinally, as a Soviet-style (offensive) battle plan, Seven Days to the
River Rhine gave commanders few defensive-war strategies for fighting NATO in Warsaw
Treaty territory.