As part of the unfolding "cold war" between the USSR and the United States, an important milestone was the proclamation of a new foreign policy doctrine of America - the Truman Doctrine.
After the end of the war, the contradictions between the allies concerned many regions. So, just before the threat of a new war, the USSR withdrew troops from Iran. Of particular concern at the top of the United States was the growing pressure from Moscow on Turkey (on the revision of the status of the straits) and Greece, where the civil war between conservatives and radical left forces continued.
In February 1947, the British government notified Washington that, due to the difficult financial situation, Great Britain would no longer be able to provide assistance to Greece and Turkey. This was the actual transfer of power to the United States. Greece and Turkey were viewed by the American authorities as a field for a fundamental clash between democracy and communism. In addition, both of these countries occupied an important geopolitical position in the Eastern Mediterranean, on the outskirts of oil reserves and strategic communications, at the junction of Europe and Asia. It was, according to the definition of the developers of the new doctrine, "the underbelly of Russia."
On March 12, 1947, President Truman asked Congress for $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey, and to authorize the dispatch of American civilian and military personnel to those countries. This address, called the "Truman Doctrine", contained a general assessment of the international situation, the defining moment of which was the conflict between the two ways of life. One of them, according to the president, was based on individual freedom, free elections, free institutions and guarantees against aggression. The other is media control, terror and oppression. The Truman Doctrine announced a new global role for the United States in countering the Soviet Union and communism. "For the United States, taking steps to strengthen countries threatened by Soviet aggression is tantamount to defending freedom itself." This struggle has become all-out. It was stated that "just as apples in a barrel will go bad if there is even one rotten one, the situation in Greece and Turkey will affect Iran and change the whole course of events in the Middle East, Africa, Italy, France, etc." Some proponents of the doctrine were quite explicit about the military significance of the Eastern Mediterranean: "We will be able to bomb Russia at close range."
Congress adopted a program of economic assistance to Greece and Turkey. The proclamation of the doctrine became an announcement of the worldwide struggle of “good” against “evil”, created a precedent in recent history for interference in the internal affairs of independent states, and confronted the whole of Europe with a choice: with whom to be - with the USSR or with the USA? Truman intended to carry out support for democracy without the approval and assistance of the newly created UN. The president's speech caused a lot of negative responses in America, but already in the second half of 1947, according to polls, 54% of Americans supported the US actions against Turkey and Greece.
The Soviet leadership naturally gave a sharply negative assessment of the Truman Doctrine. Zhdanov's report to a meeting of communist parties in September 1947 stated that the doctrine "is designed to provide American assistance to all reactionary regimes ... is openly aggressive in nature."
In close connection with the new US foreign policy concept was the famous Marshall Plan, which allowed America to carry out economic expansion. On June 5, 1947, at Harvard University, Secretary of State J. Marshall made a report on the provision of economic assistance to European countries that were in crisis after World War II. Initially, it was supposed to extend the action of the plan to all countries of Europe, but the USSR and its satellites refused to participate in it, because they believed that its implementation would lead to a violation of the political sovereignty of the countries receiving aid.
Initially, 16 states were participants in the Marshall Plan - Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey. Then the action of the plan was extended to the Federal Republic of Germany. The Organization for European Economic Cooperation was created, with the task of drawing up a "program for the restoration of Europe." The Marshall Plan was in effect from April 1948 to October 1951.
The United States began systematic assistance to European countries. In accordance with the Marshall Plan, its European participants were to: 1) take measures to facilitate trade among themselves; 2) to ensure the activation of the most efficient production capacities to achieve an increase in output; 3) take measures to strengthen their currencies; 4) give organizational support to European cooperation. The coordination of investments by participating countries was very important.
There were also quite specific conditions for accepting aid from the Americans: renunciation of the nationalization of industry, preservation of the freedom of private enterprise, encouragement of private American investment, free access to American goods with a unilateral reduction in customs tariffs, etc. Assistance was provided mainly in the form of loans and gratuitous subsidies. The main share (about 60%) of the total amount allocated by the United States was received by England, France, Italy and the Federal Republic of Germany.
Deliveries of the first type covered items of vital necessity. Every spring, appropriations were made for food, fuel, and clothing. Year by year, as the European countries' own resources grew, these allocations were reduced. Since aid of this kind is not self-sustaining, and most Western European countries were not able to pay for these supplies in dollars, the bulk of the latter came in the form of subsidies, not loans. The local currency earned from the sale of these products was to be used by governments to reduce the state budget deficit (and hence the rate of inflation) and to build up scarce resources: steel, coal, oil products, power equipment, vehicles.
The second type of supply is industrial equipment. Here financing was dominated by loans from the International Bank. The third type of supply is raw materials, agricultural machinery, manufactured goods, spare parts, etc. These supplies were financed under the guarantees of the US government through the US Export-Import Bank. In October 1951, the Marshall Plan was terminated. In 1953, J. Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Annual assistance of $4-5 billion allowed recipient countries to increase output by $20 billion in three years. Investments made in the late 1940s and early 1950s increased the competitiveness of European exports in foreign markets. At the same time, the plan, of course, contributed to the strengthening of the economic, and with it the political influence of the United States. International banks that sponsored countries in need fell under the control of the Americans, and the dollar became the main instrument of their expansion. Simultaneously with economic cooperation, cooperation in the military-political sphere developed, and it was directed primarily against the USSR.
On March 12, 1947, American President Harry Truman delivered a speech that has gone down in history as the Truman Doctrine. This foreign policy was followed by the United States for the next two decades. The document allowed the US government to establish its own rules of the game in Europe. Interestingly, the White House still follows certain provisions of this plan.
Historical context
In 1947, when Harry Truman proposed a foreign policy program that determined US relations with European countries for two decades to come, the Cold War had already been going on for at least two years. Historians approach the determination of the date of the beginning of this ideological confrontation in different ways. Some believe that the world order, that is, the conditional boundaries of the influence of the Soviet Union and Western countries, was determined by the Yalta Conference of 1945. Others consider Churchill's Fulton Speech to be the starting point of the confrontation.
"Fulton speech"
On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill, in the presence of the President of the United States, declared that the West could not continue to pay attention to the fact that the freedoms and rights that citizens of the United States and the British Empire have do not exist in a large number of states, some of which are very strong . Everyone who attended the speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, understood that by these words the former prime minister had in mind the Soviet Union.
Soviet control in Eastern Europe
Politicians were worried by the fact that the capitals of the Eastern European states were actually under the control of Moscow. In addition, there was growing concern in the United States and Western Europe about the growing popularity of socialist and communist parties.
In Greece, for example, the communists almost concentrated all power in their hands. At the same time, it was not the Soviet Union that liberated the country from the invaders, but the British Empire. From 1944 to 1949, the communist wing of the Democratic Party of Greece even occupied most of Athens and waged military operations against the official (pro-Western) leadership. Of course, this was done with the support of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. In 1947, Great Britain withdrew its armed forces from Greece, so the problem fell "on the shoulders" of the United States.
Greek Question
Officially, the British Empire refused to support a pro-Western Greece due to internal financial difficulties. At that time, Washington was confident in the strengthening of the positions of the USSR in the region, which, of course, they could not allow.
Harry Truman, speaking in the US Congress, asked politicians to provide economic and military assistance to Greece in order to prevent the communists from seizing power. A communist victory would call into question the political stability of Turkey, which is expected to lead to problems in the Middle East. In addition, Truman noted that the United States has an obligation to help free peoples in the fight against totalitarian regimes. The spread of communism, he believed, was undermining the foundations of international peace by threatening the internal security of the United States.
Help in exchange for loyalty
The bill was passed on May 15, 1947. After being signed by the president, the draft became law, reflecting all the provisions of Truman's foreign policy. The concept of the Truman Doctrine was officially enshrined on May 22, 1947.
A precondition for allocating funds and sending military and civilians to Greece "for state modernization and monitoring the use of aid" was the agreement of the Turkish and Greek governments to transfer the implementation of the plan to the control of the American mission. The Truman Doctrine thus created the possibility of US interference in the internal affairs of independent states in Europe.
About a month later, first the American-Greek and then the American-Turkish agreement was signed. Of the amount allocated for assistance, 300 million dollars were provided to Greece, 100 million to Turkey. Five years later, both states deployed US military bases on their territory, and the Turkish side even agreed to base nuclear weapons.
Truman Doctrine: General Concept
The US foreign policy was based on sharp criticism of the regimes established in the states of Eastern Europe. The provisions of the Truman Doctrine declared the leading role of the United States, the responsibility of the States for the state and further development of the international community.
At first, public support for the foreign policy course was provided by pressure on the primitive feeling of man - fear. The US Deputy Secretary of State, for example, presented communism as an infection that could hit all nearby targets. Arthur Vandenberg, an anti-isolation Republican senator, suggested that the president simply "intimidate the American people."
The goal of the Truman Doctrine was to contain the Soviet Union. The provisions were extremely anti-Soviet in nature. In the future, the United States continued to provide various kinds of assistance to other states, using this as a means to interfere in their domestic politics. The territory of previously independent countries was turning into a springboard for putting pressure on the USSR and its allies.
Protection of economic interests
After the end of the war, the countries of Western Europe found themselves in a difficult economic situation: huge external debts and a completely ruined economy. Under these conditions, communist parties gained popularity. The coming to power of the communists would have led to the fact that the loans would not have been repaid, and the United States would have lost the market for goods. Soviet industry could fully meet the needs of the countries in its sphere of influence, and the United States could not allow this.
Creation of a new world order
According to the Truman Doctrine, the United States must help the "free peoples" decide their own destiny. A means of such assistance could be a nuclear environment, which at that time only the United States possessed. The Truman Doctrine became a logical continuation of the Monroe Doctrine. True, the latter declared only the New World as the sphere of America's interests, while Truman's foreign policy made the whole world so.
Imposing the "American Dream"
The way to protect the spread of influence of the USSR in the world was the imposition of the "American dream" on the population. Replace the ideals of communism, which inspired the workers not only in many European countries, but also in the United States, with the ideals of the Western way of life. Truman said so in his speech: "We are able to provide other countries with a way of life free from coercion."
public propaganda
Harry Truman had an intense personal dislike of Communism, comparing the Left to dogs he couldn't stand. In his speech, he spoke about the condemnation of dissenters. By this word, Truman meant the Nazis in the past, the Communists in the present. The containment of the USSR thus became a matter of personal honor.
"European Recovery Program"
The logical continuation of the Truman Doctrine was the Marshall Plan, or the "Program for the Reconstruction of Europe", and the creation of military blocs, including NATO. The stated goal of the plan was to rebuild the war-torn economy, modernize industry, remove barriers to free trade, and drive out the communists as much as possible.
The fact is that already a few years after the end of hostilities, the United States saw in Europe not at all the picture that they expected. The greatest concern was caused by the rise in popularity of left-wing ideas. According to the Marshall Plan, the American government provided material assistance to states, but in return required potential partners to remove communists from leadership positions.
The effect of the "Plan for the Restoration of Europe" is estimated by historians ambiguously. Industry in Western Europe revived, and the governments of European states paid off their foreign debts. But even without the help of the Americans, according to experts, European states would have begun to emerge from the post-war crisis in 1947-1948. The contribution of the Marshall Plan was actually not as significant as it was represented by the American media. The US provided only 10% of the total.
In an effort to turn Western Europe into a model of the Western way of life for ideological counteraction to the Soviet Union, the US authorities carried out not only economic (Marshall Plan), but also military-political binding. The latter was achieved by the creation of NATO. As a result, Western European governments ousted the Communists and recognized US leadership in the world. The Truman Doctrine led to this.
cold war
The term "cold war" was first used in an official setting by adviser Harry Truman in 1947. The decision of the US President to provide Turkey and Greece with economic assistance was the beginning of the confrontation. In addition, it was Truman who defined the content of the emerging conflict as a confrontation between democracy and totalitarianism. In the USSR, they liked to talk about the opposition of socialism (communism) to capitalism.
Internal opposition to communism
In the United States itself, leftist movements were also gaining momentum. It was necessary to reflect the Truman Doctrine (year 1947) in domestic policy. McCarthyism became such a reflection - a movement that accompanied the exacerbation of anti-communist sentiments and repressions against citizens who were "anti-American".
Many figures of culture and art (Charlie Chaplin, Pete Seeger, Edward G. Robinson and others), not to mention scientists (David Joseph Bohm, Robert Oppenheimer, Albert Einstein), politicians (Paul Robeson, Bartley Croom), public figures (William Edward Breckhardt Dubois). Representatives of sexual minorities were also persecuted.
The seriousness of the situation in the world today requires me to address a joint session of Congress. The foreign policy and national security of our country are under threat. One aspect of the current situation that I present to you now for your consideration and decision concerns Greece and Turkey. The United States has received a request from the Greek Government for financial and economic assistance. Preliminary reports from the American economic mission in Greece, and reports from the American ambassador to that country, confirm the Greek Government's assertion that aid is urgently needed if Greece can remain a free country...
… There are no ideal governments. One of the main virtues of democracy, however, is that its flaws are always in plain sight, and in democratic processes they can be corrected. The Greek government is not perfect. However, it represents eighty-five percent of the members of the Greek Parliament who were elected in last year's elections. Foreign observers, including 692 American observers, agreed that these elections were a fair expression of the will of the people of Greece.
The Greek Government operated in an atmosphere of chaos and extremism. It made mistakes. Helping this country does not mean that the United States condones everything the Greek Government has done or will do. We condemned in the past, and we condemn now, any extremist measures against dissidents and call for greater tolerance.
Greece's neighbor Turkey also deserves our attention. The future of Turkey, as an independent and economically significant country, is no less important for the democratic world than the future of Greece. The situation in which Turkey finds itself today is significantly different from the situation in Greece. Turkey was spared those disasters that were in the neighboring country. And during the war, the United States and Great Britain provided material assistance to Turkey. However, Turkey now needs our support to carry out the necessary modernization to preserve its territorial integrity.
The British Government has informed us that, due to its own difficulties, it is no longer able to provide financial and economic assistance to Turkey. As in the case of Greece, we are the only country capable of providing this assistance. One of the main goals of the foreign policy of the United States is to create the necessary conditions in which we and other peoples of the world will be able to protect a way of life free from any coercion. This was the decisive cause of the war with Germany and Japan. Our victory was won over countries that sought to impose their will and their way of life on other nations.
To ensure the peaceful development of peoples free from coercion, the United States took part in the creation of the United Nations. The United Nations was created to ensure the freedom and independence of all its members. We must uphold free nations, their democratic institutions, and their national integrity against the aggressive inclinations of totalitarian regimes that undermine world peace through direct or indirect aggression, and therefore the security of the United States.
The peoples of many countries of the world have recently been forced into totalitarian regimes against their will. The United States government has made frequent protests against policies of coercion and intimidation, in violation of the Yalta Accords, in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. I must also state that similar events have taken place in many other countries.
At the moment, almost every nation in the world must choose between alternative lifestyles. The choice is too often far from free. One way of life is based on the will of the majority and is characterized by free democratic institutions, free elections, guarantees of individual freedom, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based on the will of the minority, forcibly imposed on the majority. It is distinguished by terror and oppression, controlled by the press and the suppression of individual freedoms.
I believe that the United States should support free peoples who resist the aggression of an armed minority or outside pressure. I believe that we must help free the peoples so that they can decide their own destiny. I believe that our assistance should be primarily economic and financial, which will lead to economic stability and thus will have an impact on political processes. The world does not stand still and the status quo is not indestructible. But we cannot allow changes in the balance of power in violation of the Charter of the United Nations by methods such as coercion or aggression.
One has to look at the map to understand that the survival and integrity of the Greek nation matters in a much broader perspective. If Greece fell under the control of an armed minority, this effect could spread to its neighbor, Turkey. Disorder and anarchy could spread throughout the Middle East. In addition, the disappearance of Greece as an independent state would have a great impact on the free countries of Europe recovering from the war. It would be a real tragedy if these countries, which have fought for their freedom for so long, should lose it. The collapse of free institutions and the loss of independence would be catastrophic not only for them, but for the whole world. If we fail to help Greece and Turkey at this fateful hour, this will have far-reaching consequences for both the West and the East.
We must take immediate and decisive action. Therefore, I ask that Congress provide $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey during the period ending June 30, 1948. In addition to the money, I ask that Congress authorize the dispatch of American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey at the request of these countries, to assist in the tasks of state modernization and for the sake of monitoring the use of financial and material assistance.
The United States contributed $341 billion to win World War II. It is an investment in world freedom and world peace. The assistance I am asking for for Greece and Turkey amounts to little more than one tenth of a percent of these investments. It's just common sense that we should keep our investment and make sure it wasn't all in vain. The seeds of totalitarian regimes spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when people's hope for a better life has died.
We must support this hope.
The free peoples of the world ask us to maintain their freedom. If we waver in our leadership, we may endanger world peace. And, of course, we will endanger the well-being of our nation. A great responsibility has been placed on us by recent events.
And I am sure that Congress will not abdicate this responsibility.
Main events
Historical context
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The seriousness of the situation in the world today requires me to address a joint session of Congress. The foreign policy and national security of our country are under threat. One aspect of the current situation that I present to you now for your consideration and decision concerns Greece and Turkey. The United States has received a request from the Greek Government for financial and economic assistance. Preliminary reports from the American economic mission in Greece, and reports from the American ambassador to that country, confirm the Greek Government's assertion that aid is urgently needed if Greece can remain a free country...
… There are no ideal governments. One of the main virtues of democracy, however, is that its flaws are always in plain sight, and in democratic processes they can be corrected. The Greek government is not perfect. However, it represents eighty-five percent of the members of the Greek Parliament who were elected in last year's elections. Foreign observers, including 692 American observers, agreed that these elections were a fair expression of the will of the people of Greece.
The Greek Government operated in an atmosphere of chaos and extremism. It made mistakes. Helping this country does not mean that the United States condones everything the Greek Government has done or will do. We condemned in the past, and we condemn now, any extremist measures against dissidents and call for greater tolerance.
Greece's neighbor Turkey also deserves our attention. The future of Turkey, as an independent and economically significant country, is no less important for the democratic world than the future of Greece. The situation in which Turkey finds itself today is significantly different from the situation in Greece. Turkey was spared those disasters that were in the neighboring country. And during the war, the United States and Great Britain provided material assistance to Turkey. However, Turkey now needs our support to carry out the necessary modernization to preserve its territorial integrity.
The British Government has informed us that, due to its own difficulties, it is no longer able to provide financial and economic assistance to Turkey. As in the case of Greece, we are the only country capable of providing this assistance. One of the main goals of the foreign policy of the United States is to create the necessary conditions in which we and other peoples of the world will be able to protect a way of life free from any coercion. This was the decisive cause of the war with Germany and Japan. Our victory was won over countries that sought to impose their will and their way of life on other nations.
To ensure the peaceful development of peoples free from coercion, the United States took part in the creation of the United Nations. The United Nations was created to ensure the freedom and independence of all its members. We must uphold free nations, their democratic institutions, and their national integrity against the aggressive inclinations of totalitarian regimes that undermine world peace through direct or indirect aggression, and therefore the security of the United States.
The peoples of many countries of the world have recently been forced into totalitarian regimes against their will. The United States government has made frequent protests against policies of coercion and intimidation, in violation of the Yalta Accords, in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. I must also state that similar events have taken place in many other countries.
At the moment, almost every nation in the world must choose between alternative lifestyles. The choice is too often far from free. One way of life is based on the will of the majority and is characterized by free democratic institutions, free elections, guarantees of individual freedom, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based on the will of the minority, forcibly imposed on the majority. It is distinguished by terror and oppression, controlled by the press and the suppression of individual freedoms.
I believe that the United States should support free peoples who resist the aggression of an armed minority or outside pressure. I believe that we must help free the peoples so that they can decide their own destiny. I believe that our assistance should be primarily economic and financial, which will lead to economic stability and thus will have an impact on political processes. The world does not stand still and the status quo is not indestructible. But we cannot allow changes in the balance of power in violation of the Charter of the United Nations by methods such as coercion or aggression.
One has to look at the map to understand that the survival and integrity of the Greek nation matters in a much broader perspective. If Greece fell under the control of an armed minority, this effect could spread to its neighbor, Turkey. Disorder and anarchy could spread throughout the Middle East. In addition, the disappearance of Greece as an independent state would have a great impact on the free countries of Europe recovering from the war. It would be a real tragedy if these countries, which have fought for their freedom for so long, should lose it. The collapse of free institutions and the loss of independence would be catastrophic not only for them, but for the whole world. If we fail to help Greece and Turkey at this fateful hour, this will have far-reaching consequences for both the West and the East.
We must take immediate and decisive action. Therefore, I ask that Congress provide $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey during the period ending June 30, 1948. In addition to the money, I ask that Congress authorize the dispatch of American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey at the request of these countries, to assist in the tasks of state modernization and for the sake of monitoring the use of financial and material assistance.
The United States contributed $341 billion to win World War II. It is an investment in world freedom and world peace. The assistance I am asking for for Greece and Turkey amounts to little more than one tenth of a percent of these investments. It's just common sense that we should keep our investment and make sure it wasn't all in vain. The seeds of totalitarian regimes spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when people's hope for a better life has died.
We must support this hope.
The free peoples of the world ask us to maintain their freedom. If we waver in our leadership, we may endanger world peace. And, of course, we will endanger the well-being of our nation. A great responsibility has been placed on us by recent events.
And I am sure that Congress will not abdicate this responsibility.At a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the Senate of the US Congress on March 12, 1947, President Harry Truman delivered a speech that went down in history as the "Truman Doctrine". The statement with which the head of the American state appeared before the Senate was made a year after the famous "Fulton speech" by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and determined Washington's approach to European countries and their interaction with the USSR. TASS talks about the main messages of Truman's speech and about which positions of the doctrine remain relevant at the present time.
From Fulton to Washington
If the Cold War was not at its height in 1947, it had been going on for at least two years. Historians have different approaches to determining the date of the beginning of this confrontation: some believe that the February conference in Yalta 1945 determined the world order after World War II, thereby creating a conditional framework for the spheres of influence of the Soviet state and Western countries, while others believe starting point of the conflict "Fulton speech" Churchill.
On March 5, 1946, Churchill, in the presence of the American President, declared at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, that the West could no longer "close its eyes to the fact that the freedoms enjoyed by citizens in the United States, in the British Empire, do not exist in significant numbers. countries, some of which are very strong." Under these countries, the ex-premier primarily had in mind the USSR.
The British politician was worried about the fact that "the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe" were under the actual control of Moscow, which determined the direction and development of the domestic and foreign policies of these countries. In addition, there was growing concern in the US and Western Europe over the rise in popularity of socialist and communist parties.
So, in Greece, which was liberated from the countries of the "axis" not by the USSR, but by the British Empire, the communists almost came to power. From 1944 to 1949, there was a war in the country: the armed wing of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) - the Democratic Army of Greece - even occupied most of Athens and, with the support of Yugoslavia and the USSR, continued military operations against the pro-Western official authorities. By 1947, Great Britain completely withdrew its armed forces from the country and, in fact, threw the problem "on the shoulders" of the United States.
It was during this period that Harry Truman's landmark statement fell, not only confirming the promises of the Fulton Speech, but also representing a specific plan of action against the "red threat" in the central and eastern parts of the old continent.
Money in exchange for loyalty
Port workers fill sacks with American grain at the Macedonian port. The American freighter Thomas Foster (left) unloaded 9,000 tons of grain as food aid to Greece. 1947
If the countries liberated by the Soviet Union from the Hitler coalition had practically no political choice outside the socialist and communist directions, then the states bordering on them had such a choice. But the post-war devastation and high levels of poverty, as history shows, lead to the growth of radical left or right sentiments among the population (as was the case with Germany after the First World War).
The only reasonable solution, as it seemed to the American and Western establishment at that time, was to provide countries inclined towards socialism with all-round assistance, from military to financial. But such support, of course, was far from gratuitous. The price is the loss of an independent foreign policy.
And on March 12, 1947, Truman, in his speech, proposed to American legislators just such an approach to the problem. He asked Congress to provide Greece and Turkey with $400 million until 1948, and to allow civilians and military personnel to be sent to both countries "for the purpose of state modernization and for the sake of supervising the use of financial and material aid."
At the moment, almost every nation in the world must choose between alternative lifestyles. The choice is too often far from free
Harry Truman
President of the United States from 1945 to 1953
As a result, the president's proposal was accepted, and the Democratic Army of Greece was destroyed thanks to the $300 million sent to the monarchist government ($100 million was provided to Turkey). Both states joined NATO five years later and deployed American military bases on their territory. And Türkiye agreed to the deployment of an American nuclear weapon at the Incirlik air base.
Public support for the Truman Doctrine, as well as its acceptance by senators and congressmen, was secured by pressure on one of the most primitive human feelings - fear. US Deputy Secretary of State Dean Acheson presented communism as an infection that could infect neighboring countries, and Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg, who was an opponent of isolationism, suggested that Truman speak before Congress and "intimidate the American people." And so he did.
Doctrine, plan, stability
50th US Secretary of State George Marshall Jr.
The doctrine was followed by the no less famous "Marshall Plan", also known as the "Program for the Reconstruction of Europe". The plan went into effect in April 1948 and, according to the idea of Secretary of State George Marshall, was supposed to, along with promoting the economic recovery of 17 countries of the Old World, squeeze the extreme left out of the political field of the post-war continent.
Truman's allocation of $400 million to Greece and Turkey pales in comparison to the $13 billion allocated from 1948 to 1951 to European countries under the Marshall Plan. Most of the funds were sent to the UK, France, Italy and Germany. The countries receiving American aid were obliged to remove the communists from the government.
The direct succession of the plan to the "Truman Doctrine" was ensured. Recipient countries deepened their interaction with Washington and began, partly at the American initiative, to unite with each other, moving from the European Coal and Steel Community to the European Union.
And whether elements of the doctrine have remained in the modern US foreign policy approach to European countries are best evidenced by the facts: Greece and Turkey, which received help back in 1947, are still members of NATO, there are now about 170 American military facilities in Germany alone, and the rhetoric of the American establishment regarding Russia and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe has hardly changed.
To keep the peace, we (the United States - TASS note) led the effort to establish a system of global alliances and security commitments, guarantored by American military power and the deployment of our forces on bases in Europe and Asia.
David Petraeus
ex-head of the CIA
