Would Latin American countries be accepted in NATO during the cold war?

West234

West234

Gukpard said:
Hello. One of the things that puzzle me the most is that many Latin American countries like Brazil had US aligned dictatorships in the cold war, but for some reason they didn't join NATO. Why didn't they?
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There were some people pushing for this in nations that are closely American allied nations like Columbia and Brazil. However it never happened primarily because NATO was always intended to be a solely Euro-American alliance it was even written into NATOs founding charter that the only new members that could join were European nations so in order to let in nations in South America they would need a truly massive effort internally from both the nation itself and the rest of NATO. In NATO itself you would not only need to convince all the nations in the Alliance to not only grant the new member in but also to change the NATO charter to allow it to happen. In any South American nation you need to gather up enough domestic support for membership which in Itself would be difficult. Often the main thing pushing European nations to join NATO is security concerns about Russia or just wanting to not be left out of geopolitical defense discussions about Europe but in South America none of these pressures exist especially because most nations there have formal or informal defense pacts with America anyway.
 

Blue cat

West234 said:
There were some people pushing for this in nations that are closely American allied nations like Columbia and Brazil. However it never happened primarily because NATO was always intended to be a solely Euro-American alliance it was even written into NATOs founding charter that the only new members that could join were European nations so in order to let in nations in South America they would need a truly massive effort internally from both the nation itself and the rest of NATO. In NATO itself you would not only need to convince all the nations in the Alliance to not only grant the new member in but also to change the NATO charter to allow it to happen. In any South American nation you need to gather up enough domestic support for membership which in Itself would be difficult. Often the main thing pushing European nations to join NATO is security concerns about Russia or just wanting to not be left out of geopolitical defense discussions about Europe but in South America none of these pressures exist especially because most nations there have formal or informal defense pacts with America anyway.
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It also occurs to me that Canada and the US would have been highly relevant to the North Atlantic theatre in a possible Soviet / NATO war in a way that most if not all other non European nations simply were not. (Ie. Both Canada and the US along with the UK played a major role in keeping the North Atlantic Sea Lanes open in WW2.) While I can see other European NATO members playing a role in such a conflict other I don't see many (if any ?) other nations besides the US and Canada playing such a role in a notional WW3. For example I doubt Australia and New Zealand would have had many (if any ?) forces to spare for the North Atlantic and they already had security arrangements with the US.

My apologies if I have overlooked a contribution by other nations.

Edit to add:

And of course both Canada and the US stationed ground and air combat forces in Europe for much if not all of the cold war.
 
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West234

West234

Blue cat said:
It also occurs to me that Canada and the US would have been highly relevant to the North Atlantic theatre in a possible Soviet / NATO war in a way that most if not all other non European nations simply were not. (Ie. Both Canada and the US along with the UK played a major role in keeping the North Atlantic Sea Lanes open in WW2.) While I can see other European NATO members playing a role in such a conflict other I don't see many (if any ?) other nations besides the US and Canada playing such a role in a notional WW3. For example I doubt Australia and New Zealand would have had many (if any ?) forces to spare for the North Atlantic and they already had security arrangements with the US.

My apologies if I have overlooked a contribution by other nations.

Edit to add:

And of course both Canada and the US stationed ground and air combat forces in Europe for much if not all of the cold war.
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I think if we’re talking about South America It would be a mostly periphery role like in world war 2 where they send small numbers of troops to Europe and produce large numbers of weapons and resources for the war effort.
 

Emperor Constantine

Well, during the Cold War there were attempts to create other "NATO" alliances by the US. These included both the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO)/Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) (which the US wasn't part of directly due to political reasons), and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) as well as the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR), which was a proto alliance that never really got off the ground due to US actions in the region. So maybe Washington pushes for a South America Treaty Organization (SATO) as well-organized TIAR replacement to help round out its alliance system?
 
AHFan

AHFan

I agree with comments stating that these countries can be aligned with the US and NATO, but they would more likely form their own alliance.

NATO had a fear of large, mechanized and well trained Warsaw Pact forces. Nations in Latin America would have different concerns.
 
Maeglin

Maeglin

By the same token, Cuba was not in the Warsaw Pact.

SEATO was famously called a "zoo of paper tigers." Any attempt at a Latin American equivalent would be an infamous who's-who of nasty juntas.
 
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