#107
Mr. La Fourtne
Document B
18 February 2013
The Truman Doctrine
"I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure." (Harry Truman pg. 566). This is part of the speech Harry S. Truman gave to congress on the behalf of small countries falling to the pressures of communism. The Truman Doctrine was an anti-communist foreign policy that would change of the world.

Turkey and Greece were under a great threat by the Soviet-supported rebels seeking to topple the government and install communist power. This made the United States and especially Truman very nervous. This is why the Marshall Plan, which is one of the direct influences to the Doctrine, was thought up. This plan was designed to give aid to any European country damaged during World War Two. It tremendously helped ravaged European nations such as Italy and France. By helping these countries the United States was economically forcing away communism. This was the way the United States had it all planned out. We weren't making the Communist very mad cause it was very indirect but later on this wouldn't be the case.

The process by which the Truman Doctrine came about was a long and tedious one. After World War Two the US and Soviet Union were at the top of all world powers. Everything was pretty much equal such as military, economics, and nuclear power. The one thing that scared the US the most was the fact that the Soviets were greedy and wanted more and more land. This is where we began to see a huge threat to Greece, Turkey, and Iran. On March 12, 1947 President Harry S. Truman gave a speech to congress that would later be call the Truman Doctrine.

The Truman Doctrine would ask for a total of 400 million dollars for both Greece and Turkey (Truman pg. 565). The money for Greece would be split between economic and military aid and for Turkey the aid was entirely for military purposes. The President had turned debate on two modest proposals into a vote of confidence on his administration's foreign policy and a test of American willingness to resist a threat defined to endanger the basic security and values of the American society. By Truman doing this it almost put congress at a no win situation. Congress couldn't go against Truman cause this speech was nationally broadcast which would mean the people would be scared. By everyone hearing that there is such a threat of course