When the Truman Doctrine was declared, President Harry S. Truman announced that the United States of America would offer financial, radical, and martial support to all states which were under risk from both exterior and interior authoritative forces. The Truman doctrine rose after it was conveyed by President Truman in a session of the Congress that occurred on the 12th of March, 1947 (Bostdorff, 2009). The reason of the speech was due to a declaration made by the government of Britain that it wouldn’t continue providing martial aid to the Greek government in its Civil War as of March 31. President Truman requested the Congress to help Greece to battle against the communists and also asked them to support Turkey since it was formerly dependent upon the British government.
At this period, the US administration held that the Soviet Union sustained the Greek Communist war. They were concerned that if the communists gained in the Greek Civil War, the Soviet Union would impact the Greek Policy. In fact, the leader of the Soviet, Joseph Stalin stopped supporting the Greek government deliberately and required the Prime Minister of Yugoslav Josip Tito to follow suit. However, President Truman’s decision of supporting Greece and Turkey was influenced by some other problems from foreign policy. In light of destroying the connection with the Soviet Union interfering with Greek and Turkey dealings, the refusal of the British support to Greece gave the required substance for Truman’s government to reorient the extraneous policy of America.
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According to the speech Truman gave, he requested the Congress to offer approximately $400,000,000 to support both Turkey and Greece and also the dispatching of the American military personnel and equipment to these regions (Bostdorff, 2009). Truman justified his request because in any case, the Communist could triumph in the Greek Civil war, the politic Turkey would be in danger which would highly distress the political stability in the Middle East. The United States could not allow this happen since this region had a strategic importance to the safety of the United States. Also, Truman claimed that the US was bound to help these countries in their fight with totalitarian administrations since the extent of authoritativeness would destabilize the grounds of worldwide peace hence the safety of the United States would be undermined. President Truman argued that the US could not watch and let the development of Soviet totalitarianism into self-governing nations since the state security of America depended heavily upon the physical safety of the US territories. Relatively, in its anticipation of widespread foreign obligations beyond the western hemisphere, the Truman doctrine became devoted to the United States to offer support to preserve the integrity of the self-governing nations when this proposal reckoned to be in the interests of the United States.
The relationship between the United States and Greece before and after the Truman’s doctrine
The Communists rebels located in Greece were banned from ruling by the British Army. America was becoming highly startled by the progress of power by the Soviet Union. So, the British government reported to Truman that they could not meet the expense of keeping their militaries in Greece any longer hence Truman took over (Bostdorff, 2008). In March 1947, he gave a speech to the Congress and told them that it was America’s responsibility to end the great growth of communism which was known as the Truman Doctrine. In June the same year, General George Marshall visited Europe to see what was required for the war. Marshall and Truman requested the Congress for about $17 billion to account for the European Recovery Programme which was named the Marshall Plan whose intention was to boost the European economy. The Congress hesitated at first but approved in March 1948 after Czechoslovakia also turned to be communist. The support was provided in the form of food, funds to buy equipment, the boosting of transport systems and also the provision of medicine (Bostdorff, 2008).
Currently, both Greece and the United States have strong bonds and cooperate in a wide range of activities and the participation in international organizations. For the last few years, added movement has been seen in dealings between these two countries. The US-Greek Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement signed in September 1990 has gotten into effect hence regulating the relationship between them (Bellou, 2013). These two countries have also had economic and commercial relations due to the exception of limitations put by the United States on importing specific agricultural products. However, the US has allowed Greece to sell its industrial products in the US market entirely. Some of the products that Greece export to the United States are oil products, foods, pipes, cement, and Tobacco while some of the products the US import to Greek are Machinery, electrical equipment, and agricultural products.
Effects of the Truman Doctrine on regional and global affairs
The Truman doctrine had some consequences in Europe. Western Europe governments containing strong Communists movements such as France and Italy were supported and encouraged to keep Communists out of the government (Parmar, 2016). This was in responses to the actions of the Soviet Union to eliminate opposition groups. In the year 1950, President Truman signed up the top-secrecy policy plan known as NSC-68 which changed foreign policy from inactive to active suppression. The signed document varied from George F. Kennan’s idea of suppression drawn in his X article since it contained much harsher anti-communist rhetoric. NSC-68 indicated that the communists prearranged to dominate the whole world (Parmar, 2016). The Truman Doctrine is also compared to the validation of the first involvement of America in the Vietnam War. Truman tried to help France’s propose to hold onto its Vietnamese settlements shortly after the Korean War had started. The US supported France with military advisers and equipment to fight anti-imperialist and anti-colonial revolutionaries.
The Truman doctrine intention was to contain the expansion of communism to safeguard the strategic interests of the United States. It ensured that the Soviet Union could not have control of the resources in Greece and Turkey. Its intentions were not to alter the behavior of Greece rather it was to safeguard this country by supporting it with armament and military soldiers to fight communists from colonizing them.
References
Bellou, F. (2013). Greece in the Twentieth Century . Routledge.
Bostdorff, D. M. (2008). Proclaiming the Truman Doctrine: The Cold War call to arms . College Station: Texas A & M University Press.
Bostdorff, D. M. (2009). HARRY S. TRUMAN," SPECIAL MESSAGE TO THE CONGRESS ON GREECE AND TURKEY: THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE"(12 MARCH 1947). Voices of Democracy, 4 , 1-22.
Parmar, I. (2016). Racial and imperial thinking in international theory and politics: Truman, Attlee and the Korean War. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 1369148115613657.
