Answer:
A. to protect its member countries from Soviet attack
Step-by-step explanation:
In 1949, in the postwar period of the Second World War, the expansionist policy of the Soviet Union was viewed with concern in the West. It was evident that the United Nations Organization alone could not be able to maintain stability in the world, since the US proposals in the Security Council were rejected by the numerous Soviet vetoes. The emergence of communist governments in Central and Eastern Europe by Soviet influence increased the pressure in Western Europe. Between 1947 and 1949, a series of events, most dramatic because of the recent march of US and Canadian troops still in Europe since the end of the Second World War, marked the highest point in the tension that I was experimenting. These events were threats to the sovereignty of Norway, Greece, Turkey and Czechoslovakia, among others, where the Prague coup of February 1948 was interpreted as a direct attack on European interests. In addition, the Berlin blockade, between June 1948 and May 1949, worsened the situation for the aforementioned countries.
The need for an association of countries was becoming more evident, so that in March 1948, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Brussels, with which they created a military alliance, the European Union Occidental.Ante the growing socialist expansion, it was decided to create a wider defensive alliance than the Western European Union, so negotiations were held between the United States, Canada and the countries of the Western European Union, which decided to invite to Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Norway and Portugal. The negotiations revolved around the creation of a military alliance based on Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, and resulted in the signing of the Washington Treaty on April 4, 1949. laid the foundation for the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.