Summarize a situation that required U.S. diplomatic efforts during the president’s time in office
The selected president for purpose of this paper is Harry S. Truman, whose diplomatic doctrine of containment became so famous that it was the subject matter of the article written by George Kennan in the year 1947. The doctrine of containment was exercised by Truman between the years 1945 and 1953. The situation that required the diplomatic efforts of the United States at this time was the Cold War (Roskin & Berry, 1999). Truman articulated policies related to the Cold War, which then journalists picked and coined them as doctrines. The essence of Truman’s doctrine was containing the expansion of communism, presumably everywhere. The main issue that affected Truman at this time was the increased expansion of the Soviet Union in East Asia, Indies and Middle East in the course of the Cold War. The United States felt that the Soviet Union was intending to expand and control important resources such as the oil fields in the Middle East.
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It is important to report that on the 21st February, 1947, the regime of Harry Truman got into a big problem (Frazier, 2009). On this day, the British embassy in Washington notified the U.S. State Department, without any prior warning, that the Great Britain was with immediate effect stopping its aid to Greece and Turkey. It is important to note that both countries were under immense pressures from the Soviet Union (Frazier, 2009). The United States was then left with the responsibility of preventing the collapse of the Greek Government and ensuring the people of Turkey had the ability of defending their country. Truman received warnings from the British leaders who feared that unless the United States implemented immediate intervention, then Greece and Turkey would assuredly become part of the satellites of the Soviet Union (Frazier, 2009). In this case, the major problem to President Truman was not even about accepting the challenge from Great Britain. The great challenge of President Truman was convincing the Congress to approve the necessary financial resources (Ou, 2005). Moreover, the move would require approval of the Congress for more presence in the Middle East. It must be noted that the Congressional approval would depend on the public feelings about the intended involvement in Greece and Turkey. It must be understood that the Democratic Party did not have the majority of the seats in the Congress houses. Therefore, any appeal for financial resources in order to implement a foreign policy always had the high risk of defeat at this time. In fact, at this time a lot of the Republican legislators believed that the reduction of government expenditure was the main goal to pursue (Frazier, 2009). This was the situation in which President Truman was at the time of implementing his diplomatic doctrine.
Explicate the diplomatic doctrine the president followed, with reference to specific actions or events that occurred
President Harry Truman established, with his containment doctrine, that the United States would offer political, economic and military help to all the democratic countries, which were under threat from the external as well as internal authoritarian forces. The Truman Doctrine significantly transformed the United States foreign policy (Frazier, 2009). The foreign policy was shifted from the normal stance of withdrawal from the external regional conflicts and minimizing the direct involvement of the country to the one of active intervention in the far away battles and military actions.
Under the Truman Doctrine, the United States provided aid to the Greek Government in its battle against the Greek Communist Party. At this time, the United States believed that the Soviet Union gave massive support to the Greek Communist Party in its fight against the government of that nation (Frazier, 2009). President Truman asked the Congress, in a speech, to provide $400,000,000 worth of aid to both the Greek and Turkish Governments and support the dispatch of American civilian and military personnel and equipment to the region (Jacobson, 2015). Truman justified his move by arguing that a Communist victory in the Greek Civil War would endanger the political stability of Turkey, which would undermine the political stability of the Middle East. This could not be allowed in light of the region’s immense strategic importance to U.S. national security (Frazier, 2009). He stated that the new foreign policy of the United States would be to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
Describe the effects of these diplomatic efforts for the U.S. and other countries
The effects of the Truman Doctrine, which was directly applied in Turkey and Greece, included reduced influence of the Soviet Union and the strengthening of the governments of Turkey and Greece. The expansion efforts of the Soviet Union into Greece and Turkey were effectively contained by the United States when Truman shifted the country’s foreign policy from that of withdrawing from the external and far away conflicts to the one of increased presence and direct involvement in the Middle East conflicts. This new foreign policy of the United States also had the impact of weakening the influence of the Soviet Union.
The advantages and disadvantages of the Truman Doctrine
The Truman new doctrine of containing the expansion of communism everywhere had the advantage of safeguarding the strategic interests of the United States in the Middle East. The Truman Doctrine helped in ensuring that the Soviet Union did not have control over the strategic resources within the Middle East like oil fields. The only disadvantage of this foreign policy adopted by President Truman is it emerged that he had overrated the strength of the Soviet Union hence used more than enough resources to contain it. Moreover, it is a doctrine that greatly increased the expenditure level of the United States hence causing budgetary constraints and economic slow-down in the country.
References
Frazier, R. (2009). Kennan,“Universalism,” and the Truman Doctrine. Journal of Cold War Studies , 11 (2), 3-34.
Jacobson, M. R. (2015). The National Security State and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman. Origins of the National Security State and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman , 11 , 212.
Ou, S. E. N. G. (2005). U.S. Foreign Policy in the Post Cold War Era. Academia Education .
Roskin, M. G., & Berry, N. O. (1999). IR: the new world of international relations . Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
