MAP 27.3 European NATO Members and the Warsaw Pact in the 1950s

The two superpowers intensified their rivalry by creating large military alliances: NATO, formed in 1949, included the United States and Canada as well as European states; the Warsaw Pact was formed in 1955 after NATO invited West German membership. International politics revolved around these two alliances, which faced off in the heart of Europe. War games for the two sides often assumed a massive war concentrated in central Europe over control of Germany.