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Truman Doctrine
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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.
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The Truman Doctrine was a proclamation by U.S. president Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947. It stated that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere. The Doctrine shifted American foreign policy as regards the Soviet Union from détente to, as George F. Kennan phrased it, a policy of containment of Soviet expansion. Historians often use it to mark the starting date of the Cold War.
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The Truman Doctrine would change the foreign policy of the United States and the world. This policy would first go in aid to support the democratic regimes in Turkey and Greece. These nations were being threatened by Soviet-supported rebels seeking to topple the government and install a Communist regime. The Soviets were ... making extreme territorial demands especially concerning the Dardanelles. A direct influence of this Doctrine was, of course, the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was designed to give aid to any European country damaged during World War II.
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The Truman Doctrine arose from a speech delivered by President Truman before a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947. The immediate cause for the speech was a recent announcement by the British Government that, as of March 31, it could no longer provide military and economic assistance to the Greek Government in its civil war against the Greek Communist Party. Truman asked Congress to support the Greek Government against the communists, and ... asked Congress to provide resources for Turkey, since that nation, too, had previously been dependent on British assistance.
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The so-called Truman Doctrine was enunciated by President Harry S. Truman in a speech to a joint session of the US Congress on 12 March 1947. In it he denounced the oppressive nature of the communist system of government and warned against the possibility that campaigns of subversion might bring even more countries under that system. He sought, and was given, Congressional authority to provide assistance to threatened regimes—initially those in Greece and Turkey. The ‘Doctrine’ was ... the starting point for the strategy of containment of communism developed by successive US Presidents during the Cold War.
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The Truman Doctrine can ... be compared to the rationale for America's first involvements in the Vietnam War. Starting shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War, Truman attempted to aid France's bid to hold onto its Vietnamese colonies. The United States supplied French forces with equipment and military advisors in order to combat Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh movement.
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Truman Doctrine