A historical look at NATO and its many challenges as Biden heads to summit on Ukraine
CBSN
As President Biden travels to Belgium to meet with NATO members about the war in Ukraine, he says the alliance is more united today than ever. The reason: Vladimir Putin.
NATO has never faced a test like this — a hot war in Europe that carries the threat of biological, chemical or even nuclear weapons. Though NATO is not defending a member nation, it has grown unified defending everything the alliance was created to preserve.
NATO grew out of World War II as a defensive alliance to shield Western Europe from the Soviet Union. America and Europe also wanted to contain Germany, the aggressor nation in both World Wars.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.