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In February of 1947 England informed the United States that it was ceasing foreign aid to Greece and Turkey, which had the potential repercussions of allowing communist insurgents to take over the two impoverished countries to fill the vacuum. The United States felt that it had to fill the void created by Englands withdrawal or see the two nations fall to the communists. It was then that Secretary of State Dean Acheson articulated what would later become known as the domino theory(TrumanLibrary.Org n.d.).
President Harry Truman then went to congress and requested $400 million in military and economic assistance to the two nations and establishing what would become known as The Truman Doctrine. It said, It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures(ibid). The formal nature of this announcement heralded a new era of post war confrontation with the eastern bloc nations and gave rise to the term Cold War.
Over the next twenty years the U.S. poured over $4 billion into Greece. For that that money they created virtually a vassal state, ruling Greece as Britain had done in the 19th century and building the Greek intelligence agency into an arm of the American CIA (Barnet 1968). The Truman Library site is a quasi-governmental website designed to proactively support all of the works of the former president.
While informative, it should perhaps be taken for gospel only on such incontrovertible information as dates of speeches, etc. The second site is designed to promote a book which Richard Barnet wishes to sell, and thus should not necessarily be taken at face value until his bona fides is more closely examined. However, it does present a more logical reason for the Truman Doctrines implementation than altruism, saying that oil was at the heart of American aims in the region (ibid), just as it so obviously is today.
References
Barnet, R. 1968 Intervention and Revolution: The United States in the
Third World Retrieved 4-7-08 from: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Insurgency-Revolution/Truman%20Doc_GreekCW_IAR.html
TrumanLibrary.Org Student Activity: Harry Truman and the Truman
Doctrine Retrieved 4-06 from: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/teacher/doctrine.htm
President Harry Truman then went to congress and requested $400 million in military and economic assistance to the two nations and establishing what would become known as The Truman Doctrine. It said, It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures(ibid). The formal nature of this announcement heralded a new era of post war confrontation with the eastern bloc nations and gave rise to the term Cold War.
Over the next twenty years the U.S. poured over $4 billion into Greece. For that that money they created virtually a vassal state, ruling Greece as Britain had done in the 19th century and building the Greek intelligence agency into an arm of the American CIA (Barnet 1968). The Truman Library site is a quasi-governmental website designed to proactively support all of the works of the former president.
While informative, it should perhaps be taken for gospel only on such incontrovertible information as dates of speeches, etc. The second site is designed to promote a book which Richard Barnet wishes to sell, and thus should not necessarily be taken at face value until his bona fides is more closely examined. However, it does present a more logical reason for the Truman Doctrines implementation than altruism, saying that oil was at the heart of American aims in the region (ibid), just as it so obviously is today.
References
Barnet, R. 1968 Intervention and Revolution: The United States in the
Third World Retrieved 4-7-08 from: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Insurgency-Revolution/Truman%20Doc_GreekCW_IAR.html
TrumanLibrary.Org Student Activity: Harry Truman and the Truman
Doctrine Retrieved 4-06 from: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/teacher/doctrine.htm