Causes Of The Truman Doctrine

In Fulton, Missouri, on 5 March 1946, Winston Churchill, England’s Prime Minister, spoke the famous words, “An Iron Curtain has descended across Europe.” These words were said before an actual 1,000 mile long fence was erected to divide the communist Eastern side of Europe from the Capitalist Western side. The west knew that Stalin could not be trusted after he lied at the Yalta conference in 1945. After Germany was defeated, Russia wanted to attack Japan, but behind Russia’s back, the U.S. and Great Britain dropped a nuclear bomb on Japan infuriating Stalin. All of these events and more created a great divide between Russia, the U.S., and Great Britain. After the U.S. president, Henry Truman passed, the Truman Doctrine, that stated that any
country being oppressed by outside forces to become communist could be aided by the U.S. to become capitalist, Stalin was scared. Stalin feared that his people would learn that capitalism is better than communism, so, therefore, he took control of many of the countries near Russia and created the “iron curtain” through Europe. The West did not know how to respond and had to figure out a quick way to aid the countries under the clamp of the communist power. The curtain had a negative effect on the countries enclosed inside, and after the curtain fell in 1989, those countries struggled to put themselves back together. This essay will talk about the events that caused the iron curtain to rise up, and how it affected the nations within it. What led to the great divide between Russia and the rest of Western society was influenced greatly by the actions that took place in post WWII. One of those was the Yalta Conference in 1945. This Conference took place in a Russian resort town in the Crimea and decided many of the outcomes of the ending and post war in Europe. The Allied leaders also discussed how the land surrounding Russia would be divided up and the future of Germany, Eastern Europe and the United Nations. After Roosevelt died in 1945, Truman took office. Once this happened, the people realized and were outraged with Roosevelt's actions accusing him of handing over Europe to Russia. Russia now had a barrier of countries between them and the western Society. This conference later came to be known as, “The most controversial of all the allied war councils.”. Another council was held with the Big Three ( Stalin, Churchill, Truman) discussing how they would attack Japan to end the war. Stalin agreed to wait and attack as one allied force, but the U.S. and Great Britain went behind the soviets back. These two agreed to drop an atomic bomb,which was a very new technology at the time, on Japan to end the war. When they did this the Russians were at their last straw with the West and were starting to think that the West was not their allie. The U.S.
and the U.K. were at odds with Russia at an all time high and Truman did something that the soviets were afraid of. Truman passed the Truman doctrine that allowed the U.S. to aid countries under the control of an outside authority and to liberate them into a democracy. The reason truman wanted this passed is because he knew how dangerous communism is as he said in his plea to congress,”The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope alive.” This doctrine aided Greece and Turkey by allowing the U.S. to liberate them from soviet control and create a democracy. Sine this doctrine allowed the U.S. to liberate the lands under Soviet control the soviets were deathly afraid and did not know what to do. Due to this fear Russia decided to construct a 1,000 mile long fence that would separate the eastern communism from the western
capitalism. The term “Iron Curtain” was used by Churchill at that speech in Missouri, but he did not coin the term. The term originated in the London theatre of all places. The curtains in these theatres caught on fire so much that they had to make them with iron so the fires would stop. After many countries followed this new technology it got the nickname “Iron Curtain” The Curtain didviding the West and the East held a similar idea. The barrier allowed Communism to fester and spread out to all the countries the soviets had taken control of like a fire. The curtain physically stop the infiltration of western ideology into the East by having an actual metal barrier, but it also divided the two ideologically. Russia had such a different view on society that they felt they needed a divide from the rest of the world. The influence communism had on Russia forced them to think there was not better way to rule a country and were afraid of the western ideas. As this iron construction was setting in a new brick wall was being built in Germany. Germany was a much divided country having the U.S. aided West side and the communistic east side under the control of both Khrushchev and the soviets. Khrushchev wanted the U.S. aid to leave Western Germany because they viewed it as a threat to them. The U.S. responded saying it is our right to be here and we will not leave until we feel that this nation is safe for all of the people. After much failed negotiation the eastern germans erected a massive wall in 1961 that stood towering over the border. It stretched all the way to the ends of Germany. Before this wall was constructed an estimated 3.7 to 4 million people went to the western side for freedom through roads, canals, crossings, and trains, but this came to an abrupt end when the wall was erected. This had such a detrimental impact on the families that were divided not allowing any contact through the wall. This lasted for 26 years until it fell in 1989. The divide between the east and west is another example of the control the soviets had on the countries they controlled, influencing them to do things for the good of communism. As Europe went through the post war period after WWII, the Iron Curtain had a profound influence on the outcome of European nations.
Russia was obtaining land and countries through the many post-war conferences and as those countries were trying to recover from the war the Russian government was infiltrating those drowning countries. For example, Germany had been completely disheveled and was in dire need of repairs. Russia, having obtained this land, slowly influenced Germany’s leader Khrushchev to break away from the U.S. aid and become a communist society. Also as the Soviets integrated into many of these places they were thinking of what could help Russia as a whole. After the war, Russia, “would lose at least 11,000,000 soldiers (killed and missing)”. This catastrophic number shows the devastation after WW2. Due to Russia’s devastation, they were in dire need of basic things to kind of quick start their country. “The Soviet Union literally occupied, packed up, and shipped out of Eastern Germany, out of much of Hungary and indeed much of Poland, which was not well known at the time, factories, train tracks, horses, and cattle.” Russia had such success because they literally took over the industrial production of these countries, hence causing them to rely on Russia for their needs. Another historian, Anne Applebaum, states that there were 3 key things the soviets did when taking control of a country. First they formed a secret police, secondly they placed trusted local
communists in charge of the era’s most powerful form of mass media: the radio, and finally Soviet and local communists harassed, persecuted, and eventually banned any of the independent organizations of those countries. As you can see, soviet Russia had great influence in the society and governments of these countries within the Iron Curtain. So much so, that within a this time period, “countries of Eastern Europe with very different historical, social and cultural backgrounds became rapidly homogenized.” The sheer magnitude of Russian totalitarianism and communism on the european nations was unimaginable by the Western countries, and while the West had their mouths gaping, Russia was quietly creating a bigger border between them and the rest of Western society. As you can see, the Iron Curtain arose from the ashes of WWII for many reasons including the post-war conferences, disputes with Western civilization, and the Truman Doctrine. These were not all of the reasons as there were many more, but these had the greatest impact. As the countries trapped in the Iron Curtain began to rebuild, soviet influence changed them for the worst. Conforming them to many communist idea and shaping the fabric of their society’s into one big block, all controlled by Stalin. The Iron Curtain certainly affected all of these countries negatively and made it even harder for them to recover once Russia left impacting the world in a way that will always be remembered.