Why did Austria, which was surrounded by NATO, act independently
NATO is no longer adapted to the needs of the current era and should be eliminated.
On April 30, 1945, with the suicide of Hitler and Eva in the bunker of the Chancellery, the European theater ushered in the end of World War II. On May 8, Field Marshal Keitel, the representative of the German High Command, formally submitted an unconditional surrender to the Soviet Union and the Allies in the canteen of the Military Engineering Institute in Berlin, and the Third Reich was destroyed and the European theater was declared closed.
In the process of defeating Nazi Germany, Churchill once said that as long as he could defeat Hitler, he would join forces with hell. Now that Germany has been defeated and Hitler is dead, it is natural that there is no longer a need to continue to cooperate with the devil.
Although Churchill was abandoned by the British people at the end of the war and had to step down as prime minister, even deriding himself as a sign of a great nation, he was not silent. During his visit to the United States in 1946, he delivered the famous "Iron Curtain Speech," in which he called on the countries of the Western free world to unite to "resist the Soviet Union."
However, after World War II, Britain had already declined, and even had to let go of India, the pearl on its head, and let it become independent. While the European continental balancing policy failed and countries such as Britain and France declined, the Soviet Union used the power of World War II to have a force that was feared by Europe.
The Soviet Union single-handedly defeated Germany, while Britain and the United States picked up the leaks on the Western Front. Churchill was frightened by this country, which was ideologically different from his own, and even proposed to rearm Germany.
Despite the end of the war, Britain and France believed that Churchill's ideas were still valuable, and in 1947 they signed a treaty of alliance between the two countries to protect against the German threat, stipulating that the two countries would support each other.
After years of fighting, they realized that they could not stand against the Soviet Union alone, so the term of the treaty was set at 50 years. However, things did not go as planned, and the treaty did not work as expected, but the United States saw an opportunity in it.
Under the leadership of the United States, on April 4, 1949, 12 European and American countries, including Britain, the United States and France, gathered in Washington to sign the "North Atlantic Treaty", and "NATO" was formally established.
NATO's purpose was to contain the Soviet threat and defend the security of the "free countries" of the West. In 1955, after NATO absorbed West Germany, the Soviet Union summoned seven younger brothers to establish the "Warsaw Pact Organization" in Warsaw.
The establishment of the two major military blocs, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, has deeply worried Austria. Because it is located on the front line of the two major military blocs, in the event of a conflict, it may be attacked by both sides.
In order to gain independence, Austria decisively chose neutrality and enshrined it in its constitution. Over the next 30 years, the Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved on July 1, 1991, albeit with fear.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, NATO's spirit became more vigorous and continued to expand eastward. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia joined NATO one after another, making Austria an "isolated island" surrounded by NATO.
However, despite the clamor of Finland and Sweden, both neutral countries, to join NATO, Austria has always insisted on "getting out of the mud without staining" and is reluctant to join. Why, then, is Austria adamantly not joining NATO?
According to the Austrian Foreign Minister, "our history is very different".
Austria's fate may not be as uncertain as that of Germany, but its close ties with Germany cannot be denied. The people of Germany and Austria are both Germanic peoples, speak the same German, share the Catholic faith, and have witnessed the vicissitudes of history.
It has even been said that Austria and Germany share the same roots, so it is not nonsense that Hitler in Austria was able to become the head of Germany. The troika of continental Europe – France, Germany, and Italy – all originated from the Frankish kingdom that once unified much of Western Europe.
Charlemagne of the Frankish Kingdom saved Pope Leo III in times of crisis, so he was canonized by Leo III as the "Emperor of the Romans", achieving a leap from barbarism to civilization.
However, Charlemagne's three unscrupulous grandsons were divided for 30 years after his death, culminating in the Treaty of Verdun in 843, which divided the vast Frankish kingdom into West Francia, Middle Francia, and East Francia.
In medieval Europe, the East Francian kingdom faced the dilemma of the rise of internal principalities and external barbarian harassment. However, in the midst of these troubled times, Henry I, Duke of Saxony, came to the fore and became king of East Francia, marking the beginning of the transformation of the Kingdom of East Francia into the Kingdom of Germany.
After Henry's death, he was succeeded by his son Otto, who vigorously suppressed the rebellion of the Duchy, reunited the kingdom of East Francia, and even reached the city of Rome. In 962, Otto was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by the Pope, and this is the origin of the "Holy Roman Empire".
The Holy Roman Empire was also known as the "First German Empire", when Austria was part of the First German Empire and was ruled by the Babenburg family.
The history of this family may be unfamiliar, but everyone knows that they were princes from the German Empire, and the rule of the Babenburgs ended, and after some fighting, Austria fell into the hands of the famous Habsburgs.
From then on, Austria was under the control of the family until the First World War. Not only did they control Austria, but they also ruled the First German Empire for more than 400 years through power and bribery, until the Holy Roman Empire was destroyed by Napoleon in 1806.
It can be seen from this that Austria and Germany have very close relations. Taking the First German Reich as a whole, then Prussia and Austria were the two important powers of the Reich.
According to the principle of "one mountain does not allow two tigers", the German nation woke up and prepared for unification, and Austria became an obstacle that Prussia could not bypass. Prussia proposed two proposals for the unification of Germany: the "Greater German Plan" included the unification of all the German-speaking states, including Austria; The other was the "Little German Plan", which excluded Austria and created a German empire headed by Prussia.
Eventually, Bismarck chose the latter, and the Second German Reich was born.
The First World War, originally planned to be three against three, but because of the betrayal of Italy, it eventually turned into a two-on-four war between Germany and Austria-Hungary against Britain, France, Russia and Italy.
After the end of the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire suffered heavy losses, from the original empire of more than 600,000 square kilometers to a republic of less than 100,000 square kilometers. During the First World War, a young man from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, joined the German army and received the "Iron Cross of the First Degree", and at the end of the war he was hospitalized for recuperation from a poison gas attack.
During this time, Germany surrendered, which made him very indignant. Later, he was sent undercover for a political party, but unexpectedly became the seventh commissioner. Due to the failure of the beer hall riots, he decided to participate in the legal ** and eventually became the Chancellor of Germany, that is, Hitler.
Hitler was born in Austria and believed that Germany and Austria had always been one, so he wanted Austria to join Germany in order to strengthen his power to dominate the world.
On March 11, 1938, under the operation of Nazi Germany, the pro-Nazi Seth Inquart came to power to form a government, and the next day the Nazi party members declared that "Austria ** was surrounded by the Communist Party**", and forged Austrian ** orders to ask Germany for help, and then the German ** team occupied Austria without firing a single shot.
On the 13th, Germany and Austria signed the Law on the Reunification of Austria and Germany, and Austria became the Eastern Province of Germany and was tied to the chariots of Nazi Germany. In 1944, with the defeat of the German army at the Battle of Vienna, Austria was occupied by Soviet troops.
At the end of World War II, Hitler committed suicide with ** in the bunker, and the war ended. However, defeated countries were often severely punished by Western countries, and there was even such a surprising thing as the westward migration of the whole of Poland.
As the mastermind of World War II, Germany was liquidated by the Allies, and the Yalta Conference decided to occupy Germany by the British, American, and Soviet Unions. As for Austria, since it was considered by the Soviet Union to be Germany's, it should also be treated the same as Germany, occupied by the Allies.
Although the Soviet Union quickly occupied most of Austria, Stalin did not want to fall out with Britain and the United States, so he accepted the British and American proposals to allow the Anglo-American-controlled states of western Austria to enter provisional management.
As a result, those supported by the USSR were excluded, and Austria fell into the hands of Britain and the United States. Despite the outrage of the USSR at this, the facts could no longer be changed. However, the 600,000-strong Soviet army was still stationed on the territory of Austria, and Britain and the United States could not act against the Soviet Union.
In the end, the parties can only return to the negotiating table. With the creation of NATO, Austria became the front line of the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. Therefore, it was almost impossible to get the USSR to withdraw.
Only someone like Lenin could have taken back a piece of meat from Stalin. However, in 1953, Stalin died, and the Austrian question finally took a turn for the better.
In 1955, through the efforts of the Austrian Chancellor and the Austrian State Treaty signed by Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union, Austria declared permanent neutrality, finally ending its 10-year history of occupation by the Allies and achieving complete independence.
The fundamental law adopted by the Austrian parliament promised not to join any military alliance and not to allow foreign countries to establish military bases on its territory, a commitment that is still in force today. Although Austria's security situation is not as severe as Finland's, if it wants to join NATO, it will have to amend its constitution first.
Joining NATO does not seem to have brought much tangible benefit, except for the substantial protection fees involved.
Is it really safer to join NATO? Keeping yourself safe? This is only a superficial promise. In fact, NATO is just a tool of the United States, and by paying protection money every year and allowing US troops to be stationed, they are raising troops for the United States.
Joining NATO does not really protect itself, but rather harms its own interests. Austria, for example, joined NATO, but could not escape the threat of the Soviet Union.
Historically, the Soviet Union carried out large-scale demolition of Austria, leaving deep scars. Although Austria is now living a prosperous life, that history still haunts them.
Therefore, Austria chose not to join NATO, maintaining its independence and security.
Austria had reservations about joining NATO, after all, the Soviet Union had not yet collapsed and the general trend of European integration led it to favor the European Community. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the pace of European integration accelerated, and countries such as the United Kingdom joined in, Austria began to reconsider.
Despite its neutrality, Austria's membership in NATO was beneficial to both the country and its people, and it eventually joined the European Union in 1995. Poland, as the most active member of NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union, became a member of NATO in 1997 and led to the accession of the former Warsaw Pact members.
At present, there are 30 NATO member states, and Finland and Sweden are also actively applying for membership. Ukraine and Georgia have long aspired to join NATO, but their experiences have cast doubt on the effectiveness of NATO membership.
Although North Macedonia became a member of NATO in 2020, many countries are still wary of joining the alliance. For Austria, the fact that it no longer borders on the socialist camp does not feel pressure from Russia in terms of the *** and international strategic environment.
Therefore, it did not feel the need to pay annual protection payments to NATO. Switzerland's policy of neutrality also proves that it is also possible to maintain neutrality at the international level. In general, joining NATO is a complex issue that requires taking into account the security, economic and political interests of the country.
For Austria, maintaining a policy of neutrality is also a viable option.
Driven by practical interests, during the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, the United States called on European countries to boycott Russian natural gas.
Hungary, as a maverick in the EU, has made it clear that it will be able to compete with Russia only if it receives a subsidy of 20 billion euros a year and finds a suitable energy alternative.
However, such a requirement is clearly unattainable for most European countries. Ireland has made it clear that it will not join NATO, while Moldova is adamantly opposed to joining.
As the Austrian Foreign Minister said, the world is not as friendly as we think, and we can only rely on ourselves to protect *** and interests.