Operation Gladio was named after the Roman Gadius Sword. It part of a series of nation wide European operations first coordinated by the Clandestine Committee of the Western Union (CCWU), founded in 1948. After the creation of NATO in 1949, the CCWU was integrated into the Clandestine Planning Committee (CPC), founded in 1951 and overseen by Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). It was to set up 'stay behind' resistance armys in the region after the Soviets had conquered it if the Cold War had ever gon 'hot' and become a actual 'shooting' war.