1: The Cold War and U.S. Diplomacy - Assignment Example

Truman requested for a $400-million economic aid for Greek and Turkish governments and a dispatch of American civilian and military personnel and equipment to these states (Office of the Historian, n.d.). This paper explores the doctrine, especially its causes, context, and effects for the U.S. and other countries. It also evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of the doctrine for primary stakeholders. The U.S. gained its major political objectives of dividing the world order and containing communism and Soviet Union influence, but the relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, as well as among ideological parties, in the U.S. staled in the long-run because of the heightened fears against communism and radical political ideologies.

Political and social currents and events affected the formation of the Truman Doctrine. In February 1946, Kremlin expert George F. Kennan sent his seminal “Long Telegram” to the State Department. Kennan assessed the Soviet Union’s policies and actions, and he recommended the “containment strategy” as a suitable response (Kennedy, Cohen, & Bailey, 2010, p.928). He asserted that only “firm and vigilant containment” could thwart Soviet Union’s flow of power into “every nook and cranny available to it” (Kennedy et al., 2010, p.928). . These ideas and sentiments that categorized the world into two polarized positions nurtured the ideas of democracy for the free peoples of the world that Truman expressed in his foreign policy doctrine.

The immediate precursor to the doctrine, however, took place when Great Britain announced that it would stop providing financial support to Greece and Turkey (Merrill, 2006, p.31). Turkey’s problem seemed more urgent. Through the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, Stalin mentioned Soviet security needs to rationalize demands for joint control with Turkey of the Straits of the Dardanelles. The Dardanelles linked the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and presented Russia with several water ports. After negotiations soured, Stalin dispatched troops near the Turkish border, and Turkey called Washington for assistance (Merrill, 2006, p.31). The Truman Doctrine is posed as an economic-military doctrine.

President Truman requested $400,000,000 of aid to both the Greek and Turkish Governments, as well as the sending of American civilian and military troops and equipment to these countries, for the purposes of strengthening their military and economic resources and capabilities. He justified his request on two reasons. First, he stressed that a Communist conquest in the Greek Civil War would jeopardize Turkey’s political stability (Office of the Historian, n.d.). Conflict in Turkey could spill over the Middle East and become a larger problem in the long run (Office of the Historian, n.d.).

Furthermore, Truman championed an ideological war. Like Niehbur, Truman asserted that almost all nations must “choose between alternative ways of life,” where one camp is