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What was the Warsaw Pact?

The Warsaw Pact was formed by Eastern-bloc nations (the Soviet Union and other Communist countries in Eastern Europe) in response to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO is a military alliance formed on April 4, 1949, when twelve Western countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty. Seeing the military and political significance of the Western nations forming a strong alliance, the Soviet Union and its allies met in Warsaw, Poland, in May 1955 to devise an answer to NATO. The nations signed a treaty and formed the Warsaw Pact, agreeing that they, too, would mutually defend one another. The eight member nations were Albania (withdrew in 1968), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, and the Soviet Union. The Warsaw Pact was headquartered in Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union and, in addition to discouraging attacks from NATO countries, the organization sought...

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