Editing Warsaw Pact (section)

==History==
===Beginnings===
[[File:Pałac Prezydencki w Warszawie korpus główny 2019.jpg|thumb|right|<!-- DO NOT ADD A DIFFERENT PHOTO. The horse monument was put on the square only in 1960s -->The [[Presidential Palace, Warsaw|Presidential Palace]] in [[Warsaw]], Poland, where the Warsaw Pact was established and signed on 14 May 1955.]]
[[File:Warsaw Pact 1955.jpg|thumb|right|Conference during which the Pact was established and signed.]]
Before the creation of the Warsaw Pact, the Czechoslovak leadership, fearful of a re-militarized West Germany, sought to create a security pact with East Germany and Poland.<ref name="Laurien Crump Routledge page 21-22" /> These states protested strongly against the re-militarization of [[West Germany]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Europa dwudziestego wieku: zarys historii politycznej |language=pl |trans-title=Outline of the Political History of Twentieth-Century Europe |author-first=Antoni |author-last=Czubiński |author-link=Antoni Czubiński |publisher=Wydawnictwo Poznańskie |date=1998 |page=298 |isbn=9788386138708}}</ref> The Warsaw Pact was put in place as a consequence of the [[rearmament of West Germany|rearming of West Germany]] inside [[NATO]]. Soviet leaders, like many European leaders on both sides of the [[Iron Curtain]], feared Germany being once again a military power and a direct threat. The consequences of [[German militarism]] remained a fresh memory among the Soviets and Eastern Europeans.<ref name="History Channel 1" /><ref name="History Channel 2" /><ref>{{cite book |title=World Politics: The Menu for Choice |page=87 |author1-first=Bruce |author1-last=Russett |author1-link=Bruce Russett|author2-first=Harvey |author2-last=Starr |author3-first=David |author3-last=Kinsella |date=2009 |isbn=9780495410683 |publisher=[[Cengage Learning]]|quote=The Warsaw Pact was established in 1955 as a response to West Germany's entry into NATO; German militarism was still a recent memory among the Soviets and East Europeans.}}</ref><ref>"When the Federal Republic of Germany entered NATO in early May 1955, the Soviets feared the consequences of a strengthened NATO and a rearmed West Germany". Citation from:{{cite web|last1=United States Department of State|first1=Office of the Historian|title=The Warsaw Treaty Organization, 1955|url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/warsaw-treaty|website=Office of the Historian|publisher=history.state.gov|access-date=24 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128050302/http://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/warsaw-treaty|archive-date=28 November 2015|url-status=live|author1-link=United States Department of State}}</ref><ref>"1955: After objecting to Germany's admission into [[NATO]], the [[Soviet Union]] joins [[Albania]], [[Bulgaria]], [[Czechoslovakia]], East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania in forming the Warsaw Pact.". See chronology in:{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fast-facts-about-nato-1.778864|date=6 April 2009|title=Fast facts about NATO|publisher=[[CBC News]]|access-date=16 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504110549/http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/04/03/f-nato-fast-facts.html|archive-date=4 May 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> As the Soviet Union already had an [[Soviet Empire|armed presence and political domination]] all over its eastern [[satellite state]]s by 1955, the pact has been long considered "superfluous",<ref>Laurien Crump (2015). ''The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955–1969''. Routledge. p. 17</ref> and because of the rushed way in which it was conceived, NATO officials labeled it a "cardboard castle".<ref>Laurien Crump (2015). ''The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955–1969''. Routledge. p. 1.</ref>

[[File:Iron Curtain map.svg|thumb|left|The Iron Curtain (black line)
{{legend|#FF8282|Warsaw Pact countries}}
{{legend|#004990|[[NATO]] countries (May 1982 to October 1990)}}
{{legend|#C0C0C0|Militarily [[neutral countries]]}}
{{legend|#57D557|[[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], member of the [[Non-Aligned Movement]]<hr />}}
The black dot represents [[West Berlin]], an [[enclave]] aligned with [[West Germany]]. [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]] withheld its support to the Warsaw Pact in 1961 due to the [[Soviet–Albanian split]] and formally withdrew in 1968.]]

The USSR, fearing the restoration of German militarism in West Germany, had suggested in 1954 that it join NATO, but this was rejected by the US.<ref name="soviet request nato" /><ref>"1954: Soviet Union suggests it should join NATO to preserve peace in Europe. [[United States|U.S.]] and [[United Kingdom|U.K.]] reject this". See chronology in:{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fast-facts-about-nato-1.778864|date=6 April 2009|title=Fast facts about NATO|publisher=[[CBC News]]|access-date=16 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504110549/http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/04/03/f-nato-fast-facts.html|archive-date=4 May 2012|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="soviet request nato frus" />

The Soviet request to join NATO arose in the aftermath of the [[Berlin Conference (1954)|Berlin Conference]] of January–February 1954. Soviet foreign minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov|Molotov]] made proposals to have [[German reunification|Germany reunified]]{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|pp=197, 201}} and elections for a pan-German government,{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=202}} under conditions of withdrawal of the [[Allied Control Council|four powers]]' armies and German neutrality,{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|pp=197–198, 203, 212}} but all were refused by the other foreign ministers, [[John Foster Dulles|Dulles]] (US), [[Anthony Eden|Eden]] (UK), and [[Georges Bidault|Bidault]] (France).{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|pp=211–212, 216}} Proposals for the reunification of Germany were nothing new: earlier on 20 March 1952, talks about a German reunification, initiated by the so-called '[[Stalin Note]]', ended after the [[United Kingdom]], [[France]], and the United States insisted that a unified Germany should not be neutral and should be free to join the [[European Defence Community]] (EDC) and rearm. [[James Clement Dunn|James Dunn]] (US), who met in [[Paris]] with Eden, [[Konrad Adenauer]] (West Germany), and [[Robert Schuman]] (France), affirmed that "the object should be to avoid discussion with the Russians and to press on the European Defense Community".<ref>{{cite book |last=Steininger |first=Rolf |author-link=Rolf Steininger |date=1991 |title=The German Question: The Stalin Note of 1952 and the Problem of Reunification |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |page=56}}</ref> According to [[John Lewis Gaddis|John Gaddis]], "there was little inclination in Western capitals to explore this offer" from the USSR,<ref>{{cite book |last=Gaddis |first=John |author-link=John Lewis Gaddis|date=1997 |title=We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |page=126 |isbn=9780198780700 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/We_Now_Know/rZLtAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=little%20inclination}}</ref> while historian [[Rolf Steininger]] asserts that Adenauer's conviction that "neutralization means [[sovietization]]", referring to the Soviet Union's policies towards Finland known as [[finlandization]], was the main factor in the rejection of the Soviet proposals.<ref>{{cite book |last=Steininger |first=Rolf |date=1991 |title=The German Question: The Stalin Note of 1952 and the Problem of Reunification |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=80}}</ref> Adenauer also feared that German unification might have resulted in the end of the CDU's leading political role in the West German Bundestag.<ref>{{cite book |last=Steininger |first=Rolf |date=1991 |title=The German Question: The Stalin Note of 1952 and the Problem of Reunification |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=103}}</ref>

Consequently, Molotov, fearing that the EDC would be directed in the future against the USSR and "seeking to prevent the formation of groups of European States directed against the other European States",<ref name="molotov proposal europe" /> made a proposal for a General European Treaty on Collective Security in Europe "open to all European States without regard to their social systems",<ref name="molotov proposal europe" /> which would have included the unified Germany (thus rendering the EDC obsolete). But Eden, Dulles, and Bidault opposed the proposal.{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=214}}

One month later, the proposed European Treaty was rejected not only by supporters of the EDC, but also by Western opponents of the European Defence Community (like French [[Gaullist]] leader [[Gaston Palewski]]) who perceived it as "unacceptable in its present form because it excludes the USA from participation in the collective security system in Europe".<ref name="molotov proposal nato" /> The Soviets then decided to make a new proposal to the governments of the US, UK, and France to accept the participation of the US in the proposed General European Agreement.<ref name="molotov proposal nato" /> As another argument deployed against the Soviet proposal was that it was perceived by Western powers as "directed against the North Atlantic Pact and its liquidation",<ref name="molotov proposal nato" />{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=216}} the Soviets decided to declare their "readiness to examine jointly with other interested parties the question of the participation of the USSR in the North Atlantic bloc", specifying that "the admittance of the USA into the General European Agreement should not be conditional on the three Western powers agreeing to the USSR joining the North Atlantic Pact".<ref name="molotov proposal nato" />
Again, all Soviet proposals, including the request to join NATO, were rejected by the UK, US, and French governments shortly after.<ref name="soviet request nato frus" /><ref name="soviet request nato reply" /> Emblematic was the position of British General [[Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay|Hastings Ismay]], a fierce supporter of [[Enlargement of NATO|NATO expansion]]. He opposed the request to join NATO made by the USSR in 1954<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/17/russia.iantraynor|title=Soviets tried to join Nato in 1954|author-first=Ian |author-last=Traynor|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=17 June 2001|access-date=18 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216223602/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/17/russia.iantraynor|archive-date=16 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> saying that "the Soviet request to join NATO is like an unrepentant burglar requesting to join the police force"<!-- punctuation in original -->.<ref name="soviet request nato note" />

In April 1954, Adenauer made his first visit to the United States, meeting [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]], and [[John Foster Dulles|Dulles]]. Ratification of the EDC was delayed but the US representatives made it clear to Adenauer that the EDC would have to become a part of NATO.{{sfn|Adenauer|1966a|p=662}}

Memories of the Nazi occupation were still strong, and the rearmament of Germany was feared by France too.<ref name="History Channel 2" /><ref name="EDC refusal" /> On 30 August 1954, the French Parliament rejected the EDC, thus ensuring its failure<ref name="EDC failure" /> and blocking a major objective of US policy towards Europe: to associate West Germany militarily with the West.<ref name="Alternatives to EDC" /> The US Department of State started to elaborate alternatives: West Germany would be invited to join NATO or, in the case of French obstructionism, strategies to circumvent a French veto would be implemented in order to obtain German rearmament outside NATO.<ref name="german rearmament" />

[[File:ParkPatriot2015part4-12.jpg|thumb|left|A typical Soviet military jeep [[UAZ-469]], used by most countries of the Warsaw Pact]]

On [[London and Paris Conferences|23 October 1954]], the admission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the North Atlantic Pact was finally decided. The incorporation of West Germany into the organization on 9 May 1955 was described as "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent" by [[Halvard Lange]], [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (Norway)|Foreign Affairs Minister of Norway]] at the time.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/9/newsid_2519000/2519979.stm|title=West Germany accepted into Nato|work=BBC News|date=9 May 1955|access-date=17 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106185539/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/9/newsid_2519000/2519979.stm|archive-date=6 January 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> In November 1954, the USSR requested a new European Security Treaty,<ref>{{cite book |title=Indivisible Germany: Illusion or Reality? |author-first=James H. |author-last=Wolfe |publisher=[[Springer Science & Business Media]] |year=2012 |page=73}}</ref> in order to make a final attempt to not have a remilitarized West Germany potentially opposed to the Soviet Union, with no success.

On 14 May 1955, the USSR and seven other Eastern European countries "reaffirming their desire for the establishment of a system of European collective security based on the participation of all European states irrespective of their social and political systems"<ref name="warsaw treaty text" /> established the Warsaw Pact in response to the integration of the Federal Republic of Germany into NATO,<ref name="History Channel 1" /><ref name="NATO short history" /> declaring that: "a remilitarized Western Germany and the integration of the latter in the North-Atlantic bloc [...] increase the danger of another war and constitutes a threat to the national security of the peaceable states; [...] in these circumstances the peaceable European states must take the necessary measures to safeguard their security".<ref name="warsaw treaty text" />

One of the pact's founding members, [[East Germany]], was allowed to re-arm by the Soviet Union and the [[National People's Army]] was established as the armed forces of the country to counter the rearmament of West Germany.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/europe/2012/10/13/no-shooting-please-were-german|title=No shooting please, we're German|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|date=13 October 2012|access-date=23 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823210307/https://www.economist.com/europe/2012/10/13/no-shooting-please-were-german|archive-date=23 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

The USSR concentrated on its own recovery, seizing and transferring most of Germany's industrial plants, and it exacted [[World War II reparations|war reparations]] from East Germany, [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]], [[People's Republic of Romania|Romania]], and [[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. It also instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favour the country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: "The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet Union was approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under the [[Marshall Plan]]."<ref>{{cite book |author-first=Mark |author-last=Kramer |author-link=Mark Kramer (journalist)|contribution=The Soviet Bloc and the Cold War in Europe |editor-first=Klaus | editor-last=Larres |editor-link=Klaus Larres |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EyNcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT174 |title=A Companion to Europe Since 1945 |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-118-89024-0 |page=79}}</ref>

In November 1956, [[Soviet Army|Soviet forces]] invaded [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]], a Warsaw Pact member state, and violently [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956#Soviet invasion|put down the Hungarian Revolution]]. After that, the USSR made bilateral 20-year-treaties with [[Peoples Republic of Poland|Poland]] (17 December 1956),<ref>spiegel.de: [https://www.spiegel.de/politik/warum-steht-in-polen-eine-sowjet-garnison-a-4a249a97-0002-0001-0000-000014018986 ''Warum steht in Polen eine Sowjet-Garnison?''] ([[Der Spiegel]] 20/1983)</ref> the [[East Germany|GDR]] (12 March 1957),<ref>see also [[Group of Soviet Forces in Germany]]</ref> [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]] (15 April 1957; Soviet forces were later removed as part of [[De-satellization of the Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania's de-satellization]]),<ref>see also [[History of Romania#Communist period (1947–1989)]]</ref> and [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]] (27 May 1957),<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2195705 | jstor=2195705 | doi=10.2307/2195705 | issue=1 | date=1958 | journal=[[The American Journal of International Law]] | title=Union of Soviet Socialist Republics--Hungarian People's Republic: Agreement on the Legal Status of the Soviet Forces Temporarily Present on the Territory of the Hungarian People's Republic | volume=52 | pages=215–221 | s2cid=246005881}}</ref> ensuring that Soviet troops were deployed in these countries.

===Members===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-0529-029, Berlin, Tagung Warschauer Pakt, Gruppenfoto.jpg|thumb|right|Meeting of the seven representatives of the Warsaw Pact countries in [[East Berlin]] in May 1987. From left to right: [[Gustáv Husák]] (Czechoslovakia), [[Todor Zhivkov]] (Bulgaria), [[Erich Honecker]] (East Germany), [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] (Soviet Union), [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] (Romania), [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]] (Poland), and [[János Kádár]] (Hungary)]]

The founding signatories of the Pact consisted of the following communist governments:
* {{flagicon|Albania|1946}} [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania]] (withheld support in 1961 because of the [[Albanian–Soviet split]], but formally withdrew on 13 September 1968)
* {{flagicon|People's Republic of Bulgaria}} [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]]<ref name="history.com" />
* {{flagicon|Czechoslovakia}} [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]]<ref name="history.com" />
* {{flag|East Germany}} (German Democratic Republic; officially withdrew on 24 September 1990 in preparation for [[German reunification]], with Soviet consent and a "remarkable yet hardly noticed" ceremony, ceasing to exist altogether at midnight on 3 October)<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LoqwCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA59| publisher=[[Routledge]]|title=Longman Companion to Germany Since 1945|page= 59| isbn = 978-1317884248| last1 = Webb| first1 = Adrian |author1-link=Adrian Webb |date = 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JKrpCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA297|publisher=[[Berghahn Books]]|title=Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification|page=297| isbn = 978-1845457877| last1 = Bozo| first1 = Édéric| year = 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gXflC2Ipo_QC&pg=PA537| publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|title=Germany: 1933–1990 |page=537| isbn = 978-0-19-926598-5| last1 = Winkler |first1 = Heinrich August |author1-link=Heinrich August Winkler |year = 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=IGjfBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA261|publisher=[[Routledge]]| title=Germany in the Twentieth Century|page= 261| isbn = 978-1317542285| last1 = Childs| first1 = David |author1-link=David Childs (academic) |date = 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4YIh-_UjxUQC&pg=PR54| publisher= [[University of Washington Press]]|title=German Unification and Its Discontents |page=54 | isbn = 978-0295974910| last1 = Gray| first1 = Richard T.| last2 = Wilke| first2 = Sabine| year = 1996}}</ref>
* {{flagicon|HPR}} [[Hungarian People's Republic]] (temporarily withdrew from 1–4 November 1956 during the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian Revolution]])<ref name="history.com" />
* {{flagicon|PPR|variant=1980}} [[Polish People's Republic]]<ref name="history.com" />
* {{flagicon|RSR}} [[Socialist Republic of Romania]] (the only independent permanent non-Soviet member of the Warsaw Pact, having [[De-satellization of Communist Romania|freed itself from its Soviet satellite status]] by the early 1960s)<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
* {{flag|Soviet Union}}<ref name="history.com" />

=== Observers ===
{{flagcountry|MPR}}: In July 1963, the [[Mongolian People's Republic]] asked to join the Warsaw Pact under Article 9 of the treaty.<ref name="auto" /> Due to the emerging [[Sino-Soviet split]], Mongolia remained in an observer status.<ref name="auto" /> In what was the first instance of a Soviet initiative being blocked by a non-Soviet member of the Warsaw Pact, Romania blocked Mongolia's accession to the Warsaw Pact.<ref>{{cite book |first=Laurien |last=Crump |year=2015 |title=The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955–1969 |publisher=Routledge | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mLSgBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 |page=77| isbn = 978-1317555308}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_lfPDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA398|publisher=Cambridge University Press|title=Cold Wars: Asia, the Middle East, Europe|page= 398| isbn = 978-1108418331| last1 = Lüthi| first1 = Lorenz M.| date = 19 March 2020}}</ref> The Soviet government agreed to station troops in Mongolia in 1966.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-03-03-mn-1543-story.html|title=Soviet Troops to Leave Mongolia in 2 Years|agency=Reuters|date=3 March 1990|access-date=23 August 2018|via=LA Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010153559/http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-03/news/mn-1543_1_soviet-union|archive-date=10 October 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

At first, [[People's Republic of China|China]], [[North Korea]], and [[Democratic Republic of Vietnam|North Vietnam]] had observer status,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://freecontent.abc-clio.com/ContentPages/contentpage.aspx?entryid=2012183&currentSection=2012178&productid=2012177|title=Warsaw Treaty Organization|last=ABC-CLIO|date=3 March 1990|access-date=29 August 2020|archive-date=16 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816182114/http://freecontent.abc-clio.com/ContentPages/contentpage.aspx?entryid=2012183&currentSection=2012178&productid=2012177|url-status=dead}}</ref> but China withdrew in 1961 as a consequence of the [[Albanian-Soviet split]], in which China backed Albania against the USSR as part of the larger [[Sino-Soviet split]] of the early 1960s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lüthi |first1=Lorenz M. |date=8 October 2007 |title=The People's Republic of China and the Warsaw Pact Organization, 1955–63 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14682740701621762 |journal=[[Cold War History (journal)|Cold War History]] |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=479–494 |doi=10.1080/14682740701621762 |s2cid=153463433 |access-date=17 February 2023}}</ref>

===During the Cold War===
{{Main|Cold War}}

[[File:Praga 11.jpg|thumb|left|Soviet tanks, marked with white crosses to distinguish them from Czechoslovak tanks,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.austria1989.org/1968|title=1968 – The Prague Spring|website=Austria 1989 – Year of Miracles|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708140736/https://www.austria1989.org/1968|archive-date=8 July 2019|url-status=live|access-date=8 July 2019|quote=In the morning hours of August 21, 1968, Soviet and Warsaw Pact tanks roll in the streets of Prague; to distinguish them from Czechoslovak tanks, they are marked with white crosses.}}</ref> on the streets of [[Prague]] during the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]], 1968]]

For 36 years, [[NATO]] and the Warsaw Pact never directly waged war against each other in Europe; the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies implemented strategic policies aimed at the containment of each other in Europe, while working and fighting for influence within the wider [[Cold War]] on the international stage. These included the [[Korean War]], [[Vietnam War]], [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs invasion]], [[Dirty War]], [[Cambodian–Vietnamese War]], and others.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://militaryhistorynow.com/2013/10/02/the-international-vietnam-war-the-other-world-powers-that-fought-in-south-east-asia/|title=America Wasn't the Only Foreign Power in the Vietnam War|date=2 October 2013|access-date=23 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612165646/https://militaryhistorynow.com/2013/10/02/the-international-vietnam-war-the-other-world-powers-that-fought-in-south-east-asia/|archive-date=12 June 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/crisis-points-of-the-cold-war/|title=Crisis Points of the Cold War |publisher= Boundless World History|website=courses.lumenlearning.com|access-date=23 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823174414/https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/crisis-points-of-the-cold-war/|archive-date=23 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Overzicht op Museumplein met spandoek The Dutch disease is better for peace o, Bestanddeelnr 253-8627.jpg|thumb|Protest in Amsterdam against the [[nuclear arms race]] between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, 1981]]

In 1956, following the declaration of the [[Imre Nagy]] government of the withdrawal of Hungary from the Warsaw Pact, [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Soviet troops entered the country and removed the government]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/the-cold-war/the-hungarian-uprising-of-1956/|title=The Hungarian Uprising of 1956 |publisher= History Learning Site|access-date=23 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823174101/https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/the-cold-war/the-hungarian-uprising-of-1956/|archive-date=23 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Soviet forces crushed the nationwide revolt, leading to the death of an estimated 2,500 Hungarian citizens.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/23/europe/hungarian-revolution-escape/index.html|title=Recalling the Hungarian revolution, 60 years on|first=Matthew |last=Percival|date=23 October 2016 |publisher=CNN|access-date=23 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823181544/https://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/23/europe/hungarian-revolution-escape/index.html|archive-date=23 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

The multi-national Communist armed forces' sole joint action was their [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|invasion of Czechoslovakia]], a fellow Warsaw Pact member state, in August 1968.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-invade-czechoslovakia|title=Soviets Invade Czechoslovakia – Aug 20, 1968 |website= History.com|access-date=23 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823174329/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-invade-czechoslovakia|archive-date=23 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> All member countries, with the exception of the [[Socialist Republic of Romania]] and the [[People's Republic of Albania]], participated in the invasion.<ref name="auto1" /> The [[German Democratic Republic]] provided only minimal support.<ref name="auto1" /> Albania withdrew from the pact one month after the intervention.

In April 1985, the leaders of Warsaw Pact members met in Warsaw where they renewed the alliance for thirty years.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kramer |first=Mark |date=2025 |title=The Fate of the Soviet Bloc's Military Alliance: Reform, Adaptation, and Collapse of the Warsaw Pact, 1985–1991 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/fate-of-the-soviet-blocs-military-alliance/D0F4A423FA82139E6A366F84CEEE8140 |journal=Cambridge University Press |language=en |doi=10.1017/9781009557160}}</ref>

===End of the Cold War===
[[File:00 Páneurópai Piknik emlékhely.jpg|thumb|150px|The [[Pan-European Picnic]] took place on the Hungarian-Austrian border in 1989.]]
In 1989, popular civil and political public discontent [[Revolutions of 1989|toppled the Communist governments]] of the Warsaw Treaty countries. The beginning of the end of the Warsaw Pact, regardless of military power, was the [[Pan-European Picnic]] in August 1989. The event, which goes back to an idea by [[Otto von Habsburg]], caused the mass exodus of GDR citizens and the media-informed population of Eastern Europe felt the loss of power of their rulers and the [[Iron Curtain]] broke down completely. Though Poland's new Solidarity government under [[Lech Wałęsa]] initially assured the Soviets that it would remain in the Pact,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/22/world/polish-army-enigma-in-the-soviet-alliance.html|title=Polish Army: Enigma in the Soviet Alliance|newspaper=The New York Times|date=22 August 1989|access-date=29 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220112328/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/22/world/polish-army-enigma-in-the-soviet-alliance.html|archive-date=20 December 2017|url-status=live|last1=Trainor|first1=Bernard E. |author1-link=Bernard E. Trainor}}</ref> this broke the brackets of Eastern Europe, which could no longer be held together militarily by the Warsaw Pact.<ref>Miklós Németh in Interview with Peter Bognar, Grenzöffnung 1989: „Es gab keinen Protest aus Moskau“ (German – Border opening in 1989: There was no protest from Moscow), in: Die Presse 18 August 2014.</ref><ref>„Der 19. August 1989 war ein Test für Gorbatschows“ (German – 19 August 1989 was a test for Gorbachev), in: FAZ 19 August 2009.</ref><ref>Michael Frank: Paneuropäisches Picknick – Mit dem Picknickkorb in die Freiheit (German: Pan-European picnic – With the picnic basket to freedom), in: Süddeutsche Zeitung 17 May 2010.</ref> Independent [[nationalism|national]] politics made feasible with the ''[[perestroika]]'' and liberal ''[[glasnost]]'' policies revealed shortcomings and failures (i.e. of the [[soviet-type economic planning]] model) and induced institutional collapse of the Communist government in the USSR in 1991.<ref name="dictionary" />{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=May 2022}} From 1989 to 1991, Communist governments were overthrown in [[Fall of communism in Poland|Poland]], [[Fall of communism in Hungary|Hungary]], [[Velvet Revolution|Czechoslovakia]], [[Peaceful Revolution|East Germany]], [[Romanian Revolution|Romania]], [[Fall of communism in Bulgaria|Bulgaria]], and the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union#1989|Soviet Union]].

As the last acts of the Cold War were playing out, several Warsaw Pact states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary) participated in the US-led coalition effort to liberate [[Kuwait]] in the [[Gulf War]].

On 25 February 1991, the Warsaw Pact was declared disbanded at a meeting of defence and foreign ministers from remaining Pact countries meeting in Hungary.<ref name="csmonitor" /> On 1 July 1991, in [[Prague]], the Czechoslovak President [[Václav Havel]]<ref name="auto2" /> formally ended the 1955 Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance and so disestablished the Warsaw Treaty after 36 years of military alliance with the USSR.<ref name="auto2" /><ref name="Havel" /> The USSR disestablished itself in December 1991.