The Cold War and the Truman Doctrine - Literature review Example

The Cold War and the Truman Doctrine

Introduction

The US Vice President Harry Truman came became the thirty-third President of the United States on April 12, 1945 after the death of US President Franklin Roosevelt. After coming into the power, Truman faced massive challenges in terms of leading the final defeats of the Axis Powers in the WWII; managing the US foreign policies and role in the post-war world; facilitating the transition of the American economy from a war-time to a prosperous, peace-time foundation; and maintaining the harmony and unity in a powerful, but fractious Democratic Party. However, the most difficult task for Truman was to match the reputation of his influential predecessor, F. Roosevelt, who had took the office of the presidency, the Democratic Party, and the American governance to the new heights during his remarkable 12 years in the office (Hamby, 2015). However, President Truman emerged as one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century because his foreign policies and doctrines caused a direct impact on the future major events such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and further, the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. Among all major decisions and policies implemented by the Truman Administration, the decision of dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the containment policy towards the USSR proved most extraordinary as they marked the end of the WWII and the beginning of the Cold War respectively, affecting the global politics and international relations on a long term (Watkins, 2003, p. 2).

The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the “Truman Doctrine”, which was introduced by US President Harry S. Truman. By means of available facts and reports, the paper discusses the Truman Doctrine and causes of its implementation. Further, the paper evaluates the impact of the President’s policies on domestic and global affairs during the Cold War.

The Truman Doctrine: Definition

The Truman Doctrine was the American response to the crisis in terms of growing expansion of Soviet’s influence in the Eastern Europe and Asia after the Word War II. The WWII caused the collapse of economic and political systems of many countries, especially, the situation in poor and developing countries was extremely critical. The United Kingdom, the US’ ally, was providing financial assistance to European countries like Turkey and Greece. However, due to own crumbling economy, the UK was no longer in the position to assist other countries. Consequently, on February 21, 1947, the British government informed the United States that it could no longer supply economic aid to the governments of Turkey and Greece and requested the US to take the responsibility of helping those countries. The US had been monitoring the crumbling economic and political situations in Greece. Since the end of the WWII, Greece government was fighting against the rebel movement, called the National Liberation Front, which was led by the Communist Party of Greece, whereas in Turkey, a weak government was facing Soviet pressure for sharing the control of the strategically crucial Dardanelles Straits. During the meeting with State Department officials and Congressmen, the US Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, insisted that if Turkey and Greece, two crucial European states, allowed falling to communism, it would most likely spread further in Middle East and even in Southern Asia. Acheson articulation later emerged as the Domino Theory which claims that if one state falls for communism, its neighboring states are most likely come under influence of communism too. The shocked Congressmen agreed to adopt the policy of Soviet “containment” on the condition that the US President emphasizes the seriousness of the crisis in an address to American people and Congress (1947: The Truman Doctrine, n.d., p. 1-3).

Considering the criticalness of the situation, the US President Harry Truman appealed for providing economic and military assistance for Turkey and Greece while addressing a combined session of Congress on March 12, 1947. During the speech, Truman asked for sanctioning $400 million aid to Turkey and Greece in order to protect them from falling for communism. He further stated that as no country was able or willing to assist Turkey and Greece and being the active ambassador of democracy, it was a moral responsibility of the US to help those countries and protect their democratic institutions. After justifying the need for helping Greece and Turkey, the US President Truman declared that it should be the prime policy of the US to support free people who were fighting against pursed subjugation by external pressures or by armed minority rebels. The President further emphasized that communist or totalitarian regimes were threat to global peace and security of the US; hence the US should help all anticommunist states, who were resisting communist pressure, and protect their “free people” and democratic systems in those countries. Truman’s these appeals later emerged as “Truman Doctrine”, which would set the course of US foreign policies and diplomacy for the next four decades (Recommendation for Assistance, 1947, p. 1-5). Overall, the Truman Doctrine was the US policy developed to counter spread of Soviet influence and its communism in the world during the Cold War.

The Causes of Truman Doctrine

There were many factors and events that led to the creation of Truman Doctrine in 1947. During the elections of 1946, Harry Truman’s Democratic Party faced defeat in the both houses of Congress. The Republic Party secured its victory mainly on factors like, war weariness, domestic issues, and a lack of confidence in almost newbie successor of F. Roosevelt. Consequently, Truman was eager to prove his leadership through aggressive and effective foreign policies (Frazier, 2009, p. 6-8). Also, after the end of WWII, many began to believe that there was no more threat to global security. The public language such as “secure world for rise of democracy”, “never again”, and “lasting peace” became increasingly popular. Unfortunately, these expressions were not consistent with an actual postwar reality. Even though democracy was reintroduced in the Western European countries which were liberated by Anglo-American allied forces, the Soviet regime established totalitarian communist governments in the Central and Eastern European states which were so-called “liberated” by it. In Asia, the Soviet Union captured the Chinese mainland and northern Iran and formed a communist ruling in North Korea. Also, there was a growing threat of communist expansion further in South-East Asia. Besides triggering rapid expansion of communism, the Soviet Union was involved in increasing its military power (Truman, 1947, p. 747).

By the early 1946, it started to become apparent to many American leaders, including members of both the Democratic Party and the Republic Party, that the Soviet Union was no longer the ally state it had been during the WWII. The annoying actions of Soviet leaders in the UN, the Iran crisis of 1946, and the growing pressure of the Soviet Union on Turkish government in 1946 further intensified distrust against Soviet Union. A group of influential figures emerged within the diplomatic service of the US, which included Dean Acheson (US Secretary of State), George Marshall (US Secretary of Defense), and other Foreign Service members like, Elbridge Durbrow, Loy Henderson, and George Kennan. These leading politicians consistently insisted that rather than compromising with the Soviet Union for détente, the US must oppose the USSR wherever it attempted to expand its dominance (Frazier, 2009, p. 6-10). In the early 1946, George Kennan, an expert on US-Soviet relations and the head of the American Embassy in Moscow, sent the biggest telegram in the US State Department history. In this telegram, which was popularly known as “the long telegram”, Kennan warned about the potential direct armed conflict with the USSR. He further stated that the elevated Soviet threat arose from its growing support of communist parties and related secondary actors worldwide. He insisted that the only effective strategy to tackle with the Soviet threat should be to reinforce Western democratic institutions and the serious commitment to help endangered stated in their fight against communist groups (Ideological Foundations, 2015). Further, the topmost policy of the US in the 20th century in order to maintain favorable global politics had been based on preventing Europe from falling under the influence of a single, hostile country. Maintaining the European balance of power was crucial for the US to protect its own interests (Gaddis, 1974, p. 387). After the WWII, growing expansion of the Soviet Union in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Middle East, and later, during the Greece Crisis in 1946, and the Soviet-Turkey disputes in the same period set the warning alarm to the Truman Administration. Hence, under the influence of domestic pressure and in order to contain the spread of Communism in the world, Truman adopted an aggressive policy of actively supporting any country fighting against Communism, also known as the Truman Doctrine (The Truman Doctrine, 2015).

The Impact of Truman Doctrine

The introduction of the Truman Doctrine led to revolutionary changes in the foreign policies of the United States. After the WWII, the US was trying to maintain good relations with the Soviet Union and hence, the US was avoiding direct confrontation with the Soviet Union over any global conflict. After the Truman Doctrine, many policymakers in the US acknowledged Marshall’s fear that staggering economic crisis in Western Europe in combination with its psychological weariness and its political flaws not only would significantly help local communist parties, especially in Italy and France, but also make Western Europe vulnerable to intimidation and exploitation by the Soviet Union. Such fears led to development of European economic recovery program. This program, popularly called as the Marshall Plan, resulted into immediate provision of $13 billion in financial aid for the rejuvenation and reconstruction of Western Europe by the United States. Furthermore, America’s aggressive approach through Truman Doctrine and ‘containment policy” provoked the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to adopt even more aggressive expansionist approach in Eastern Europe. Stalin ordered the formation of single-party, authoritarian regimes throughout Soviet-controlled regions by using brutal techniques of persecution, liquidations, arrests, and purges (Wilson & Miscamble, 2008, p. 13-14). Further, the relation between the US-Soviet Union kept soaring as Stalin tried to cut off land access to West Berlin in 1948. On June 24, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea with the support of the Soviet Union in order to unify the whole Korea under Communist regime. Under the Truman Doctrine, unlike in the past, the US openly supported South Korea and directly involved in the war by providing financial and military assistance to South Korea. The Korea War was the first intense war, where both the global powers, the US and the Soviet Union, involved in the proxy war (Foreign Affairs, 2016). After the Korean War, the US and the Soviet Union engaged in the proxy wars in various conflicts such as the Vietnam War, Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Afghan War. The Truman Doctrine led to the beginning of prolonged period of hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union. This period of hostility from the introduction of Truman Doctrine in 1947 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 is known as the Cold War. Truman Doctrine significantly influenced the foreign policies of Eisenhower Administration, Kennedy Administration, and Nixon Administration, leading to the intense competition between the Soviet Union and the United Stated to establish own dominance in global power system during the Cold War (Caddis, 1974).

Conclusion

To conclude, US President Harry Truman proved to be one of the most inflecting leaders in the US history. After the end of the WWII, he adopted the policy of assisting countries fighting against the threat of communism to protect own freedom. The Truman Policy of proving financial and military aid to countries fighting against Communist ideology was perceived as the America’s attempt to “contain” the spread of communism in the world and in turn, protect security and interests of the US. The Doctrine triggered the beginning of the historic rivalry, i.e., the Cold War, between two global powers, the US and the Soviet Union, affecting the international relations and global affairs in the long run.