On April 4, 1949, Secretary of State Dean Acheson and the
foreign ministers of Canada, and 10 Western European nations
(Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal) gathered in
Washington, DC, to sign the North Atlantic Treaty. In his
memoirs, Dean Acheson recalled "All the North Atlantic Treaty
ministers met in Washington on April 2 to approve the draft
treaty and arrange for its signature at a ceremony set for April
4. Here President Truman again showed his consideration for me.
I had told him that it would be appropriate and fitting for him
to sign the treaty on behalf of the United States, but this he
refused to do. He would attend the ceremony and stand beside me
as I signed, but the treaty would bear my name." The North
Atlantic alliance created a military and political complement to
the Marshall Plan for European economic recovery by establishing
a mutual defense pact against possible aggression from the
Soviet Union. In his brief remarks a