Truman Doctrine, 1947

During the Cold War, the Truman Doctrine, an American foreign strategy aimed primarily at restraining Soviet geopolitical development. President Harry S. Truman introduced it to Congress on March 12, 1947, and expanded on it on July 4, 1948, when he committed to putting down communist uprisings in Greece and Turkey. Although no direct American military action was normally used, Congress provided funds to help Greece and Turkey's economies and forces. 

The Truman Doctrine suggested American backing for other countries perceived to be threatened by Soviet communism in general. The Truman Doctrine became the cornerstone of American foreign policy, resulting in the founding of NATO in 1949, a military alliance that still exists today. Historians frequently cite Truman's speech to determine when the Cold War began.

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"It must be the policy of the United States to help free peoples who are fighting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by external pressures," Truman told Congress. Truman said that totalitarian governments automatically posed a threat to International Peace and the United States' national security because they compelled free people. During the Greek Civil War (1946–1949), Truman made the appeal. He claimed that if Greece and Turkey did not get aid, they would inevitably succumb to communism, with disastrous ramifications for the rest of the region. Because Turkey and Greece were ancient competitors, it was deemed important to assist both countries equally, despite the fact that Greece's crisis was far more severe. Critics of the program pointed out that Greece and Turkey's administrations were far from democratic at the time, and neither faced Soviet infiltration in the spring of 1949. The Doctrine "established a precedent for American assistance to anti-communist regimes around the world, no matter how undemocratic, and for the formation of a set of global military alliances directed against the Soviet Union," according to historian Eric Foner.

The United Kingdom had supported Greece for years, but was now on the verge of bankruptcy and had no choice but to drastically limit its commitment. Britain formally requested that the United States take over its role in assisting the royalist Greek government in February 1947. Congress approved the proposal, which comprised providing $400 million in American funds to the region but no military forces. The impact was to put a stop to the Greek uprising, and both Greece and Turkey joined NATO, a military alliance, in 1952 to ensure their continued stability. Informally, the Truman Doctrine was extended to become the foundation of American Cold War policy in Europe and around the world. It moved US foreign policy toward the Soviet Union from anti-fascist cooperation to the containment of Soviet growth, as urged by diplomat George Kennan. By implicitly condoning earlier Soviet takeovers in Eastern Europe, it was distinguished from rollback.

Causes Of The Truman Doctrine

Following World War II, the world was in a state of flux, with many countries experiencing political instability. The US administration was alarmed when a number of countries in Europe and Asia accepted communist governments in the late 1940s, despite being cautious of communism due to George Kennan's Long Telegram.

When the UK informed the US that it could no longer afford to fight communist insurgencies in Greece and Turkey, US President Harry S. Truman issued the Truman Doctrine, promising that the US would do whatever it took, both economically and militarily, to prevent communism from spreading around the world.

With this move, the US declared that its participation on the global stage would not cease after WWII, bringing an end to America's century-and-a-half of isolationist foreign policy.

The Truman Doctrine would result in another conflict in Asia during Truman's administration, this time in Korea, as the US government fought to prevent Korea's unification under a communist regime. Through the 1980s, Truman's policy would guide American intervention.

In this hostile international climate, US President Harry S. Truman defied his predecessor Franklin D. Roosevelt's foreign policy rules and revised the country's foreign policy principles. In a speech to US Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman laid out his containment philosophy, which aimed to provide financial and military assistance to countries endangered by Soviet expansion. In the face of Soviet aggression, the Truman Doctrine, which was obviously focused toward preventing the spread of Communism, positioned the United States as the guardian of a free world. Greece and Turkey have been given a 400 million dollar aid package.

The Americans used the containment concept to encourage Turkey to oppose Soviet claims to naval bases in the Bosphorus. They also managed to get Russian forces out of Iran. Meanwhile, measures to combat Soviet espionage had been organized since March 1947, and the United States had established the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). These shifts in US foreign policy constituted a significant turning point in the country's history since it had previously sat on the sidelines of European disputes. Isolationism was no longer an option for the United States. Let us take a look at the truman doctrine date

and all the important milestones.

Truman Doctrine Date and the Milestones

The Truman Doctrine was born out of President Harry S. Truman's speech to a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947. The speech was prompted by the British government's recent statement that, as of March 31, it will cease to provide military and economic support to the Greek government in its civil war against the Greek Communist Party. Truman requested that Congress back the Greek government in its fight against the communists. He also requested Congress to help Turkey, which had historically relied on British assistance. The US government felt that the Soviet Union supported the Greek Communist war effort at the time, and was concerned that if the Communists won the civil war in Greece, the Soviets would eventually influence Greek policy. In truth, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had purposefully withheld support from the Greek Communists, forcing Yugoslav Prime Minister Josip Tito to do the same, to the damage of Soviet-Yugoslav ties.

However, a number of other foreign policy issues also influenced President Truman's decision to actively help Greece and Turkey. In 1946, four setbacks, in particular, served to effectively torpedo any possibility of permanent rapprochement with the Soviet Union in the postwar period: the failure of the Soviets to withdraw their troops from northern Iran in early 1946 (under the terms of the Tehran Agreement); Soviet attempts to pressure the Iranian government to grant them oil concessions while allegedly fostering irredentism by Azerbaijani separatists in northern Iran; Soviet efforts to force the Turkish government to grant them base and transit rights through the Turkish Straits; and the rejection of Baruch Plan by the Soviet government for International Control of Atomic Energy and Nuclear Weapons in June 1946.

Given the deterioration of relations with the Soviet Union and the appearance of Soviet intervention in Greek and Turkish affairs, the withdrawal of British aid to Greece served as the incentive for the Truman Administration to realign American foreign policy. As a result, President Truman urged in his speech that Congress fund $400,000,000 in aid to both the Greek and Turkish governments, as well as support for the deployment of American civilian and military people and equipment to the region.

Truman Doctrine And The Cold War

With President Truman's ‘Truman Doctrine’ expressing a definite anti-Soviet stance, historic tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union erupted into what became known as the Cold War. 

The Cold War was a period of political and military conflict which was followed by World War II between Western Bloc powers (the United States, NATO allies, and others) and Eastern Bloc powers (the Soviet Union and its satellite states). Historians disagree on the dates, but a frequent time range is the era between 1947, when the Truman Doctrine (a United States policy committing to aid nations endangered by Soviet expansionism) was established, and 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved.

The origins of the Cold War may be traced back to events preceding World War II, including the 1917 Russian Revolution, which resulted in pre-World War II tensions between the Soviet Union, Western European countries, and the United States. A series of events during and after World War II heightened tensions, including the Soviet-German pact during the first two years of the war, the perceived delay of an amphibious invasion of German-occupied Europe, western allies' support for the Atlantic Charter, disagreement in wartime conferences over the fate of Eastern Europe, the Soviets' creation of an Eastern Bloc of Soviet satellite states, and western allies' abandonment of the Morgen Plan. 

The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years following the end of World War II in 1945. The USSR consolidated its control over the Eastern Bloc states, while the US launched a global containment strategy to challenge Soviet power, extending military and financial aid to Western European countries (for example, supporting the anti-communist side in the Greek Civil War) and establishing the NATO alliance. The Berlin Blockade (1948–49) was the Cold War's first significant crisis. The war widened with the communist triumph in the Chinese Civil War and the commencement of the Korean War (1950–53). The USSR and the US battled for influence in Latin America, as well as in Africa and Asia's decolonizing republics. Meanwhile, the Soviets put a stop to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. More crises arose as a result of the expansion and escalation, including the 1956 Suez Crisis, the 1961 Berlin Crisis, and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. 

Truman Doctrine Summary

Since we have looked at Truman Doctrine in detail, below is the Truman Doctrine Summary. In a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman requested US support for Greece and Turkey in order to prevent communist takeover of the two countries. Historians frequently regard Truman's speech, known as the Truman Doctrine, as the official declaration of the Cold War.