Iron Curtain Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====West of the Iron Curtain==== [[File:Curtain germany.jpg|thumb|Fence along the eastβwest border in Germany (near [[Witzenhausen]]-[[Heilbad Heiligenstadt|Heiligenstadt]])]] [[File:1 K zone.png|thumb|upright|Sign warning of approach to within one kilometer of the inter-zonal German border, 1986]] To the west of the Iron Curtain, the countries of Western Europe, Northern Europe, and Southern Europe β along with [[Austria]], [[West Germany]], [[Liechtenstein]] and [[Switzerland]] β operated [[market economy|Market Economies]]. With the exception of a period of [[Francoist Spain|Fascism in Spain]] (until [[Spanish transition to democracy|1975]]) and [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Portugal]] (until [[Carnation Revolution|1974]]) and a [[Greek military junta of 1967β1974|military dictatorship in Greece (1967β1974)]], [[Democracy|democratic governments]] ruled these countries. Most of the states of Europe to the west of the Iron Curtain β with the exception of [[Neutral country|neutral]] [[Switzerland]], [[Liechtenstein]], [[Austria]], [[Sweden]], [[Finland]], [[Malta]] and [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] β allied themselves with [[Canada]], the [[United Kingdom]] and the [[United States]] within [[NATO]]. [[Spain]] was a unique anomaly in that it stayed neutral and non-aligned until 1982, when, following democracy's return, it joined NATO. Economically, the [[European Community]] (EC) and the [[European Free Trade Association]] represented Western counterparts to [[COMECON]]. Most of the nominally neutral states were economically closer to the United States than they were to the [[Warsaw Pact]].{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page