TRUMAN DOCTRINE

Truman Doctrine

Truman Doctrine

Introduction

On March 12, 1947, President Harry Truman was presented before a joint session of Congress to deliver one of the most important speeches in American history. After outlining the situation in Greece, gave what was later known by the name of the "Truman Doctrine", which finally releases the United States to a total confrontation with the Soviet Union, i.e. the Cold War. The United States said, "That could only survive in a world in which freedom to flourish." The president asked Congress to earmark U.S. $ 400 million economic aid and military supplies to Greece and Turkey and to authorize sending U.S. personnel to help rebuilding and to supply their armies with training and proper instruction. Thus, the U.S. began with the containment policy that focused on universal nature and involved a call for new anti-Communist crusade.

Discussion

On March 12, 1947, President Harry Truman made a significant request to Congress. He asked four hundred million dollars, an amount that would be allocated to provide economic and military aid to two countries: Greece and Turkey. Truman's request was not a whim, but rather a strong response to a warning issued for Britain, warned the British that they would not be able to continue financially supporting the Greek monarchy, which was being pulled into a civil war against rebels Communists supported by the Communist leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito . Endorsing the view of Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Truman insisted that the Soviet Union planned to use the civil war to dominate Greece and, later, "Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.” Every nation, Truman said, must choose between two "alternative lifestyles" democratic or communist terror. The choice in Greece was not going to be different: I had to choose between American democracy and the Soviet dictatorship. In any case, the message of Truman ignored many of the complexities of the Greek civil war, the regimes in Athens and Ankara, but pockets were not reactionary, authoritarian, and strategic interests in Turkey, the United States went beyond of the ideological dispute that Truman called his flag. In any case, the message was successful and was labeled the "Truman doctrine." It was soon adopted by the press and the public, and Congress approved the proposed legislation in May 1947. (Ammon, 1981)

Convinced by the arguments of Truman, even some Republican isolationists, and, above all, Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, strongly supported the "Truman doctrine." Its success, at least for the Greek episode was absolute. The American military and economic aid, coupled with the fact that the Soviet dictator Stalin gave much smaller aid to the Greek communists and did not enter fully into the political challenge to the United States, finally turned the scales in favor of the Greek government, or the American democratic way, as he defended Truman. In July 1949, Yugoslavia-sought economic aid U.S. closed its borders to Greek communist rebels, and after the war shelved end it quickly. His balance was terrible: the battle left more than 158,000 dead, about ...