The Speech That Started the Cold War
The Truman Doctrine was a policy set out by President Harry Truman on March 12
1947 in a speech that would become American cold war policy throughout the world.
This policy stated that the United States would support the Greek government in the civil
War and Turkey with any military or economic aid possible to prevent and contain the
Soviet Union from absorbing them into the Soviet sphere of influence. When World War
2 started Americas foreign policy was to more or less to stay out of other countries affairs
unless it directly affected them. For example, the U.S stayed out of World War two until
Pearl Harbor. In Truman’s Speech he called for a change in this Policy which the United
States still uses today. This policy was one of actively engaging in foreign affairs if the
freedom and rights of free peoples was jeopardized by an outside influence or armed
minority. The Truman Doctrine was how the U.S started the cold war between the west
and all of Communism.
After World War two the United States started to become suspicious of the Soviet
Unions intentions for expansion. After incidents such as the soviets refusing to draw out
of Iran as of conditions of the Tehran declaration; soviet rejection of the Baruch plan to
control nuclear weapons; Soviet efforts to force the Turkish government to let them build
bases and to allow them free passage through Turkey as well as the breakdown in
cooperation with the allies in West Berlin. At the same time the Greek civil war had been
waging since 1946, the Americans where suspicious of the Soviets in aiding the
communist movement in Greece, which ended up being false. The Americans believed
that should the communists win the war the Soviet Union would gain considerable
influence over Greece.
With the Greek civil-war underway between the Greek governmental Army backed by
Great Britain and the Communist party’s Democratic army of Greece backed by Warsaw
pact members Bulgaria and Albania, Great Britain was quickly running out of resources
to aid the undersized and under equipped Greek Army. Later that year Great Britain
announced it could no longer support the Greek government as of March 31 and Greek
Prime Minister Konstantinos Tsaldaris officially asked for American assistance. On
March 12 1947 President Truman asked congress for 4 hundred million dollars to support
both Greece and Turkey and to send American military and civilian personnel and
equipment. Truman thought that if the soviets gained influence over the two countries it
would have much greater consequences for the west and the rest of the world.
It also called for policy of containment of the Soviet Union. After the war in Greece
ended in 1949 the U.S policy shifted from stopping communism in Greece and Turkey to
one of containment. Truman Believed that Communism has a domino affect that spread
like a disease. The first major confrontation in this era was in Korea when the North
Koreans crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea to unite the two under communist rule.
In response the United Nations (comprised of over 300,000 American troops) entered
South Korea using “police action”. Their mission was to hold and push back the North
Koreans back over the border. This was the first time America’s containment policy was
tested. American involvement in Korea could have started another world war depending
on how the Chinese and Soviets responded, but the Americans where successful and
showed that the only way to deal with hard line communists was “to act with an Iron fist”
Sources:
Wikipedia.org
u-s-history.com
bibliobase.com
history.state.gov