Great War: Was There Really A Winner?

Truman and Eisenhower each wanted to help limit the increasing issue of communism. One approach they did was getting involved physically and militarily in the countries that were in need. The peace conference at Potsdam was a failure, because communist Russia still stood on their own and as their own separate nation. The Soviet Union had already succeeded in conquering Poland, and much of Europe splitting up Germany. After Hitler committed suicide, the main obstacle for the United States and many other countries was to avoid the looming threat of communism. Truman created the Truman Doctrine to possibly stop or postpone this issue. “I believe,” he argued, “that it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by

The Truman Doctrine affected the Cold War by stopping Communists from destroying Europe any further. History.state.gov states, “President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces.” In his speech, he asked Congress to give support to the Greek government and go against the Communists. If the U.S. government failed to help the Greek government, the Communists would continue to damage Europe. The Truman Doctrine affected the Cold War, and another policy that affected the Cold

1947: Truman Doctrine: The Truman Doctrine was one of the policies under President Truman’s “Containment Policy.” In the Doctrine, he requested $400 million to bolster forces in eastern Europe to defend against Communism. Congress agrees and passes the doctrine. Dean Acheson, who was the Secretary of State at the time, argued that the fall of a Communist country will have a “domino” effect on the neighboring countries, and they need to be properly prepared for such a situation. As result of this policy, the US became the “global

As stated before the Truman Doctrine was a pivotal point in United States foreign policy. Such a policy has its advantages and disadvantages. The major advantage of that time was that the United States stepped in and help an economically strapped Europe and not let them fall under the domination of a single, hostile state. With Britain withdrawing aid to Greece and Turkey if the United States did not implement the Truman Doctrine, Stalin could have easily became a communist influence on those countries. Another advantage of the Truman Doctrine was that is transform America from being isolationist. Getting involved in the affairs of other countries to contain communism had a major

Citizens of Europe were living in shambles (See Fig 2). Politically, Americans knew spreading capitalistic ways in Europe would gain support from the Europeans, giving the United States trade partners. During the Cold War, Germany became the center of all the tensions between Capitalism and Communism. Germany was the ideal gateway between East and West Europe. Its location made it a suitable place for these political struggles to occur. This angered the Soviets because they too wanted to influence their ways on Europe. The Marshall Plan, following the Truman Doctrine-- which supplied $400 million to countries under totalitarian regimes (Turkey and Greece), appeared to be another anti-communist move made by the United States. However, the United States still successfully achieved the goal of making Europe economically stable.

Additionally, Americans feared Soviet motives. In April 1941, the Soviet Union signed the non-aggression pact with Japan, however after Germany’s defeat, they declared war on Japan on August 9th, 1945. The increase in Soviet influence in Eastern Europe, after the surrender of Germany, and perhaps in Asia, if the declaration of war actually occurred, troubled the United States. Unease at the fact that an attack on Japan would cause extreme American military losses resulted in the atomic bomb drop. Due to this, President Truman delivered the Truman Doctrine. “The Truman Doctrine amounted to a declaration against Russian influence beyond the boundaries laid down in 1945” (73). This document showed America’s first strides towards repressing communism. Truman reacted before Russia had the chance to expand its communism across Europe.

Political policies such as the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan added to the failure of the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. Fear of communism caused the United States government to use propaganda to raise Cold War anxieties. Furthermore, the American media influenced the attitudes of Americans, making a hatred of communism spread through the nation. In 1945, the U.S. Wanted

The Truman Doctrine was a major cause for NATO because of its financial support to different countries. It was established on March 12, 1947, after president Truman told Congress “It must be the policy of the United States of America to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities, or by outside pressure” (NATO Information Service, 1976, p.17). After Truman said that, the Congress of the United States gave $400 million to help Greece and Turkey after the Soviet Union had got to them (NATO Information Service, 1976, p.17). The Truman Doctrine was specifically made to help Greece and Turkey but Western Europe needed just as much help. Western Europe still had shortages from the war and the economy was not good at all. Once General George C. Marshall saw this on June 5, 1927, he decided the United States should make a program to help Europeans recover. Marshall thought all the European countries should have to agree on the program. He wanted the program to be efficient in helping all the European countries and not just some of them. When Marshall talks about the program he states “directed not against any country or doctrine but against, hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos” (NATO Information Service, 1976, p.17). Marshall is implying that the bigger picture is not about the different countries, but that none of them should have to deal with hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. The Truman Doctrine was not made to help just one person or

The Truman Doctrine was presented to Congress by President Truman. It was a request to send aid to Greece and Turkey because they were so close to Russia. Russia looked at their neighbors and ports as a gold mine. Truman wanted a strong American presence there so the Soviet would not further move toward Greece and Turkey. The Truman doctrine was also a policy of the United States that would support free people resisting communism.

The Truman Doctrine was the impetus for the change in United States foreign policy, from isolationist to internationalists; thus we were drawn into two wars of containment and into world affairs. The Truman Doctrine led to a major change in U.S. foreign policy from its inception - aid to Turkey and Greece - to its indirect influence in Korea and Vietnam. The aftermath of World War II inspired the U.S.

Before the Truman Doctrine there was the Monroe Doctrine that was created in 1823 by American President James Monroe which was overturned by the Truman Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine was instrumental in the creation of the Marshall Plan, which was a plan designed to contain communism by lending economic aid to struggling European countries to help get them on their feet again. This aid would help these countries fight communism. The Marshall Plan was ratified in 1948. In Truman’s speech he convinced congress that it was important to confront the soviets immediately, because if they do not then more and more countries would fall to Communism like Dominoes. This later became known as the Domino Theory which was introduced to Truman by his Under Secretary Dean Acheson. The Domino Theory was later to inspire the American interventions in Korea and Vietnam. He stated that if more countries succumb to communism it would make it easier for communism to spread, and therefore more difficult to stop. The Truman Doctrine ended up leading to NATO, and increased anti-Communist hysteria. The speech also convinced the Soviet Union that the U.S. was a threat to Soviet Communism which caused the Cold War to heat up even

The first step of the Truman Doctrine reflected on the combativeness of Harry Truman, the President. Truman wanted to worry the Congress. Which means he would provide military, political, and economic assistance to all of the democratic nations that were under threat from other authoritarian forces. Truman had also told the Americans that is our Duty to part with events in Europe. By doing that he had then asked the Congress to approve a couple hundred million dollars in emergency assistance. Truman said “I believe we must assist free peoples to work out their destinies in their own way.” He wanted to attack the terms of the nurtured totalitarianism which would prevent the overrun of free nations. This was applied to Western Europe and in June

The foreign policy of the United States during the Cold War fully supported the growth of democratic nations. The USSR, however, wanted countries to become communist like them. These opposing views led to tension between the two nations. As a result, in 1947, President Truman issued the Truman Doctrine which stated that the United States would supply aid to any country as long as they pledged to be democratic. The Marshall plan was enacted in 1948 and it was similar to the Truman Doctrine except it provided financial aid to these countries. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the United States used its foreign policy to help countries resist communist influence.

This is because the USSR took these policies as a direct attack against communism. Stalin coined the term "dollar imperialism" for the US foreign policies because they offered economic aid to nations in Europe that were detrimentally affected by WWII in an attempt to make these nations economically dependent on and politically influenced by the US. It caused fear and paranoia in the USSR because the soviet communists believed that the US would gain political and economic control of the countries in need of aid. It also caused fear and paranoia because the Truman Doctrine and Marshall plan condemned communism as evil and it took action to prevent the spread of communism to any susceptible nation by providing military assistance. The USSR was upset that the US could do such a thing, thus they responded furiously to these policies by developing their own similar form of economic aid. These were called the Molotov Plan and Comecon which forcefully imposed economic aid on countries such as Czech (even if these nations wanted the aid of the US instead). These actions and reactions caused tensions to greatly rise in the Cold War (Todd, 2009). Thus, it can be argued that it was not only Truman's policies, but Stalin's policies that also played a major role in the Cold War.

It could also be argued that the United States was the primarily reason of the collapse of the Grande Alliance as it was convinced that the main aim of the Soviets was to expand its sphere of influence ,spread communism and invade Europe with communist ideology. During that time, Europe was in a vulnerable situation as it was financially and economically unstable. Truman was therefore convinced that Stalin would therefore use the situation to his advantages. As a result of this fear, Truman introduced the Marshall plan. Truman believed that communism succeeded when people faced poverty and hardship and he therefore send his Secretary of State, George Marshall to assess the economic state of Europe. $17 billion of the United States’ money was giving for the re-construction of Europe. Stalin viewed the Marshall Aid with suspicion. He feared that the Marshall aid would weaken his hold over Eastern Europe. Furthermore Staling also believed that the USA was trying to dominate as