{"id":16830,"date":"2022-08-16T17:03:53","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T15:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=213837"},"modified":"2022-08-16T17:19:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T15:19:41","slug":"what-was-the-truman-doctrine","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/what-was-the-truman-doctrine\/","title":{"rendered":"What was the Truman Doctrine?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Emma Mason\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 16 August 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

While the Marshall Plan<\/a> attempted to bolster the economies and domestic harmony of European countries after the Second World War<\/a>, the Truman Doctrine was the United States foreign policy initiative aimed at keeping these states free from physical attacks by \u201carmed minorities or by outside pressures\u201d.<\/p>\n

No reading between the lines was necessary. This was the US\u2019s clearly stated intention of ensuring that communist forces would not interfere with or undermine the sovereignty of its allies. This was unlikely to involve direct military action from the US, but instead would take the form of financial aid packages for countries attempting to withstand communist uprisings.<\/p>\n

President Harry S Truman announced the doctrine in a speech before a joint session of Congress on 12 March 1947, specifically asking for the two Houses to agree to support packages for Greece and Turkey, both of whom \u2013 with their funding from the UK government having dried up \u2013 were facing extraordinary pressure from communist influence. Greece was in the middle of a bitter civil war, waged by left-wing guerrillas against the government of King George II<\/a>, while Turkey was bowing to pressure from the Soviet Union for shared control of the strategically important Dardanelles Straits.<\/p>\n

Truman emphasised how time was of the essence, and how relying on the still-new United Nations to collectively act and swiftly respond was unrealistic. The threat was spreading \u2013 and spreading quickly. \u201cThe Government of the United States has made frequent protests against coercion and intimidation, in violation of the Yalta agreement<\/a>, in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. I must also state that, in a number of other countries, there have been similar developments.\u201d It was, he stressed, time to act.<\/p>\n

Pledges of allegiance<\/h3>\n

Explicitly framing his argument in terms of American interests (the third sentence of his speech had invoked \u201cthe national security of this country\u201d), Truman managed to secure $400m in aid from Congress for Greece and Turkey \u2013 equivalent to more than $5bn today. This funding helped to successfully dissolve the communist threat in both cases. Indeed, five years later, Greece and Turkey both pledged their allegiance to the US by joining Nato<\/a>. Having nullified unwanted influence in a vulnerable corner of Europe, Truman would certainly agree that that was money well spent.<\/p>\n