Today the CZ factory is located in the Czech Republic (EU) and the handgun is offered worldwide. However, during the Cold War, Czechoslovakia was part of the Warsaw Pact and thoroughly communist in its political outlook. The CZ 75 was the first 9mm semi-auto pistol developed expressly for sale to the West and it offered new ideas in auto-pistol manual safety design, being a dual mode design. It could be carried in the conventional double-action/single-action mode of operation, or it could be carried "cocked and locked" like the 1911 pistol.