NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, founded in 1949, is the world’s largest military alliance. Beyond its public collective-defense role, NATO’s documented covert history centers on the stay-behind networks organized across Western Europe during the Cold War, exposed in 1990 when Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti confirmed the existence of Operation Gladio. A November 1990 European Parliament resolution condemned the networks and called for full investigations, most of which never fully materialized. Files tagged NATO cover the alliance’s clandestine structures, its post-Cold War expansion, and its role in information operations and strategic communications. NATO entries intersect heavily with Operation Gladio, the CIA, and European intelligence services documented in parliamentary inquiries.