NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO is an organization that includes countries in Europe and North America. The major reason for the formation of NATO was that the countries involved wanted a mutual defense alliance so that if one of them were attacked all of the other countries in NATO would come to their aide.
Along with helping European nations with defense, since the western European nations were economically in shambles at the end of WWII, the agreement also helped them with economic aide under the Marshall Plan. This would be done as long as the countries agreed to cooperate with each other. This would help them rebuild more quickly and get them on good terms.