Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine speech was heavily influenced by the geopolitical environment and crises of the early Cold War. In August 1945, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin, and American President Harry Truman met at Potsdam, in what was then occupied Berlin. The leaders of the allied nations met with the purpose of discussing how to establish a lasting postwar peace, but their widening divide was becoming increasingly clear. The US had successfully tested the atomic bomb, while Russia was exerting influence in Eastern Europe to create communist-run satellite states. The actions of each superpower began to increase suspicion and hostility between them, with Truman viewing the Soviet control of Eastern Europe as expansionism and the Soviets feeling threatened by the American wish to rehabilitate German industry. The conditions for the Cold War which would dominate geopolitics for the next half-century had already begun to form.

Many leading statespeople and commentors recognized the increasing polarization of Europe, as exemplified through speeches such as Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech and George Kennan’s “Long Telegram/Article X” publication. These both pointed out the division of Europe into Soviet and non-Soviet zones and warned that Russia would seek to spread communist ideology.

To oppose what was increasingly seen as a Russian menace, America was becoming the only possible recourse. Britain, once the definitive global hegemon, had been bankrupted by the First and Second World Wars, and the increasing independence movements across its empire stretched its remaining resources too thin. On February 21, 1947, Britain delivered to the US the “Blue Paper” which detailed the dire financial straits of the country and its need to withdraw from many of its previous foreign commitments, including Greece. Historian William Manchester says of this moment that “It is possible to fix the time and place when the flag of world leadership began to pass from the dying British Empire to the United States” (Manchester, William. The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America. 1932-1972, Bantam Books, 1972, p. 433). America in March 1947 found itself as the only superpower among the democratic and capitalist nations. It was within this context of a polarized world that was falling in line behind either America or Russia that Truman framed the world as divided between freedom and totalitarianism.

The Greek Civil War and the Turkish Straits Crisis provided the direct motivation for Truman’s speech. The Greek Civil War (1946-1949) was a conflict between the communist and monarchical/anti-communist factions of Greece, stemming from the power vacuum left by the Nazi retreat in 1944. The Greek monarchy had been forced to flee the country during the 1941 invasion, and, during their absence, largely communist resistance movements established themselves in Greece as the main force fighting the occupation. The absence of the monarchy during this time of crisis called the legitimacy of the government into question, and fighting broke out quickly after the monarchy’s return. British troops were able to secure the Greek king’s hold of Athens, securing a brief pause in hostilities. This period saw anti-communist persecutions and partisan terrorism, eventually leading to The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) declaring its intention to overthrow the Greek government. Truman’s Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson compared the teetering Greek state to a “rotten apple” that would spoil the barrel if left to fester: If the communists were allowed to win, he feared that communism would spread to nearby countries (McCullough, David. Truman. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1994, p. 543). The eventual US aid, and Russia’s unwillingness to provide the same, allowed the government to win the war by 1949, providing a model case of successful containment to American diplomatic analysts.

Truman also spoke of the need to help Turkey, embroiled in the Turkish Straits Crisis. This was a long-standing territorial dispute between the Soviet Union and Turkey, in which the Soviets attempted to gain joint military control of the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits. Initially, Truman dismissed it as an issue to be settled between the two countries, but later he began to worry about the Soviets’ ability to exert naval power in the Mediterranean and potentially create a communist Turkey. Soviet force build-up in the region led to a Turkish appeal to America for aid, which was provided in both naval force and considerable economic aid. The crisis ultimately ensured that Turkey was brought into the American fold during the Cold War.

Truman delivered his speech in response to these crises and against the backdrop of increasing American-Soviet hostility. By presenting the US as the only nation willing and able to support justice, while explaining how the individual crises were linked to a large-scale threat to American security, he appealed to the morality and reason of both Congress and the American people.