Truman

The Truman Doctrine

The financial support that had been supplied to Greece and Turkey by Great Britain prior to 1947 could no longer be expected because of the financial burden associated with such costs. Because of the climate at the time, there was a “domino effect” that was described to legislators regarding the situation by Undersecretary of State, Dean Acheson. Truman’s address concerning this became known as the “Truman Doctrine” and it was a guide for U.S. diplomacy for the next 40 years. The overturning of the “Monroe Doctrine” to the new “Truman Doctrine” set the stage for our current foreign policies.

President Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri in 1884. He fought in WWI and upon returning had acquired various political positions with the Democratic party including a judge in 1922 and a Senator in 1934. Harry S. Truman became president in 1945 after being Vice President for only weeks. President is quoted as saying that, “I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me” when commenting on how he felt about becoming President in such a short period with very little to no briefing on any of the then current issues. (Beschloss & Sidey, 2009)

During the age of “McCarthyism” communism had become a rampant fear and anyone suspecting to have any correlation with it was considered an enemy. In the U.S., the opinions on communism swung from what was a previous stance of it being a political issue to a new stance on communism being an issue of national security. WWI had ended and the Cold War had begun brining communism to the front lines. (Schrecker, 2007)

Because of growing hostilities between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, there was an increase fear in communism and its spread. As other countries continued their personal struggles the U.S. began to take notice and play out “worst case scenarios” in order to be prepared for what could come. These scenarios were called the “Russian Report” and was created...