The day the West unveiled NATO's founding treaty

On March 18, 1949, the U.S. State Department released the full text of the proposed North Atlantic Treaty, the charter of what would become NATO. The same day, Secretary of State Dean Acheson went on nationwide radio to explain the pact to Americans in an address later titled “The Meaning of the North Atlantic Pact.”

Releasing the text early was deliberate. Rather than present a finished deal, the seven drafting nations — the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg — opened it to public scrutiny and debate before any signature.

A defense pact was published for the world to read weeks before it was signed.

The gamble worked. Just over two weeks later, on April 4, 1949, twelve founding members signed the treaty in Washington, binding themselves to treat an armed attack on one as an attack on all. It entered into force on August 24, 1949, anchoring Western collective defense through the Cold War and beyond.