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[[File:1033px-Iron_Curtain_Final.png|thumbnail|left|250px|Countries in red are members of the Warsaw Pact, blue are part of NATO. Albania was in the Pact until the 1960s when it left and joined in an alliance with China]]__NOTOC__
The Warsaw Treaty Organization (also known as the Warsaw Pact) was a political and military alliance established on May 14, 1955 between the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries. The Soviet Union formed this alliance as a counterbalance to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a collective security alliance concluded between the United States, Canada and Western European nations in 1949.
====Conclusion====
By the 1980s, the Warsaw Treaty Organization was beset by problems related to the economic slowdown in all Eastern European countries. By the late 1980s , political changes in most of the member states made the Pact virtually ineffectual. In September 1990, East Germany left the Pact in preparation for reunification with West Germany. By October, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland had withdrawn from all Warsaw Pact military exercises. The Warsaw Pact officially disbanded in March and July of 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
* Republished from [https://history.state.gov/| Office of the Historian, United States Department of State]
