What Was The Truman Doctrine

The Cold War was fought without any physical conflicts, taking place approximately between the years 1950 and 1990, over the United States of America’s and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’ conflicting ideologies – capitalism and communism. However, it didn’t arise because of what the United States or the Soviet Union actually did. Instead, it arose because of what each side was afraid the other might do. Joseph Stalin insisted on Soviet control of Eastern Europe to serve as a buffering zone, fearing another invasion from the west. The United States, on the other hand, was afraid that communism was an expanding ideology that would try to take over the whole world, meaning their actions were motivated by fear. Significant events that
During March 1947, President Harry Truman established the Truman Doctrine. This meant the United States would go on to provide $400 million in political, military and economic support to all democratic nations resisting communism [Office of the Historian, 2018]. To justify his cause, Truman said “I believe we must assist free peoples to work out their destinies in their own way” [Office of the Historian, 2018]. Then in June 1947, Secretary George Marshall proposed offering support to all nations of Europe, who had been affected by the war, which became known as the Marshall Plan. An investment of $13 billion was put in place, over the course of a few years, to rapidly reconstruct Europe [Malone, 2015, p.100]. On the surface, it appeared that both the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan were put into place to provide the best economic reconstruction. However, they were created out of fear that communism would spread throughout Western Europe, and this was the United States’ best defence against the spread of communism. To counter these plans, Stalin created Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Aid) during January 1949. Comecon was similar to the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, however, it focused on developing strong trade links between communist countries, rather than financial support [Malone, 2015, p.101]. This too, would have been created out of fear – the fear that
The Berlin crisis led to the formation of NATO in April 1949. NATO is a military alliance of non-communist countries in Europe and North America, originally formed with thirteen countries, including the United States, Canada and Denmark. The members of NATO pledged to defend each other if attacked by the Soviet Union [Malone, 2015, p.101]. NATO was formed out of fear of being attacked, while Stalin saw the formation as an act of aggression. Stalin interpreted the formation of NATO as the Western Allies’ way of planning an attack on the Soviet Union. To counter the Western Allies’ NATO, the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries formed the Warsaw Pact in May 1955, an alliance of communist nations. Stalin feared the Soviet Union was going to be attacked by NATO, making the formation of the Warsaw Pact a protection method for the Soviet Union [Office of the Historian, 2018]. Both of these organisations were created out of fear that the other side was going to attack with an alliance. This led to further distrust between the former allies, further developing the Cold