Causes Of The Truman Doctrine

“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 quote from The Truman Doctrine, which was first articulated in 1947, had multiple factors. These included the Cold War and the threat of Soviet communism, the geopolitical disaster from World War II, economics, the deterioration of Great Britain as a global power, the U.S. rise as a new kind of superpower, and the well-being of western development. For Harry Truman, the president who knew of these issues, the United States was the only nation at the end of World War II with enough power and ability
This quote, referring to the decaying situation in East Europe and the inability of Great Britain to safeguard its regions, came at the end of what is titled “Recommendation for assistance to Greece and Turkey.” After his speech, it was immediately referred to as the Truman Doctrine. This Doctrine intended to aid threatened countries without violence in a region that was nowhere near Europe. After Truman’s experiences with Europe and Iran, he knew a strategy of containment would not end with Greece and Turkey. “I am fully aware of the broad implications involved if the United States extends assistance to Greece and Turkey,” he explains, “and I shall discuss these implications with you at this time.” Iran was very similar to what happened in Greece and Turkey and Truman made it central to the development of his Doctrine. The series of crises in Iran was a prelude of Soviet Union’s intentions and goals. For over a year, Russia breached Allied wartime agreements, ran propaganda campaigns, and abused its territory to gain control of the government in Tehran, the capital of Iran. By 1944, The Tudeh communist party became an instrument to Soviet policy and eventually dominated most of Iran. By 1946, the United States with the help of the United Nations finally forced the Soviets to withdraw almost all of their troops, but the crisis was dragged out till the
Because of the absence of the United Nations and the drop in British power, the United States was the only nation able to defend freedom and establish peace. “This is no more than a frank recognition that totalitarian regimes imposed upon free peoples, by direct or indirect aggression, undermine the foundations of international peace and hence the security of the United States,” he said. Truman highlighted that the main objective was to construct conditions in which the United States and other nations created “a way of life free from coercion.” Although no government was perfect, he added, one of the main ideas of a democracy “is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.” The Truman Doctrine was ultimately the strategy of containment, and provided the groundwork for U.S. foreign policy in the circumstances of the Cold