On March 12, 1947, the Truman Doctrine was proclaimed in the U.S. The author was in Paris, France at that time. Officials there were deeply perplexed: the declaration might have made sense fifteen days earlier or later, but they could not understand what had prompted American diplomacy to explode it right in the middle of the Foreign Ministers' Conference then in session at Moscow, Soviet Union. Now a year has elapsed and the author attempts to draw up a brief balance sheet as seen from Europe. What was the situation in Europe on the eve of President Harry S. Truman's speech, and what is it today? In March, 1947, the most striking feature of European politics leaving aside Great Britain and some countries in the Soviet sphere where one-party regimes were in power, was the emergence of the coalition government. One element in the coalition was the Communist Party, whose participation in the various Cabinets then seemed logical, even inevitable.