History of NATO Atlantic Treaty, which was signed by US President Harry S. Truman in Washington on 4 April 1949. It included the five Treaty of Brussels states plus the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, stated in 1949 that the organization's goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down". Popular support for the Treaty was not unanimous, and some Icelanders participated in a pro-neutrality, anti-membership riot in March 1949. The creation of NATO can be seen as the primary institutional consequence of a school of thought
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia extended to the Canadian squadrons deployed to the operation, 425 and 441. Ten years after the operation, the Republic of Kosovo declared independence with a new Republic of Kosovo government. Those who were involved in the NATO airstrikes have stood by the decision to take such action. U.S. President Bill Clinton's Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, said, "The appalling accounts of mass killing in Kosovo and the pictures of refugees fleeing Serb oppression for their lives makes it clear that this is a fight for justice over genocide." On CBS' "Face the Nation" Cohen claimed, "We've now seen about 100,000