The Western Bloc, also known as the Free Bloc, the Capitalist Bloc, the American Bloc, and the NATO Bloc, was a coalition of countries that were officially allied with the United States during the Cold War of 1947–1991. It was spearheaded by the member states of NATO, but also included countries that advocated democracy, anti-communism and anti-socialism, and likewise were opposed to the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. The term was used to distinguish this anti-Soviet grouping from its pro-Soviet counterpart: the Eastern Bloc. Throughout the protracted period marked by Soviet–American tensions, the governments and the press of the Western Bloc were more inclined to refer to themselves as the Free World or the First World, whereas the Eastern Bloc was often referred to as the "Communist W