Thesis
Part I
The Truman Doctrine arose from a speech delivered by President Harry Truman before a joint session with Congress on March 12, 1947. It was made to announce that the United States would not follow its old policy of isolationism and will start to provide assistance to foreign countries that are under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. The introduction of the Cold War began because of the 2 powers, the U.S. and the USSR(Soviet Union). The aftermath of World War II left the United States and Russia as the dominant military powers of the world with Russia owning Eastern Europe and the U.S. owning Western Europe. However, they both had completely different forms of government and economy which created mutual fear of the other taking over their land and destroying their governments which led to the Cold War. Important figures were Joseph Stalin, Nikita Sergejevitsj Krutzhev, President Harry Truman, President Franklin Roosevelt, and President John F. Kennedy were all important figures of the Cold War.
Part II
The Truman Doctrine was a turning point on the U.S.A. all by a speech given. The speech was about helping any country that was fighting against communism. it led to a change because we wanted to help whoever went against communism and countries started fighting against communism so we started helping which meant a lot more wars for longer time periods. From 1947-1989 we (U.S.A.) helped fight which led to us gaining more respect but also enemies which advanced into the Cold War.
Part I
The Truman Doctrine arose from a speech delivered by President Harry Truman before a joint session with Congress on March 12, 1947. It was made to announce that the United States would not follow its old policy of isolationism and will start to provide assistance to foreign countries that are under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. The introduction of the Cold War began because of the 2 powers, the U.S. and the USSR(Soviet Union). The aftermath of World War II left the United States and Russia as the dominant military powers of the world with Russia owning Eastern Europe and the U.S. owning Western Europe. However, they both had completely different forms of government and economy which created mutual fear of the other taking over their land and destroying their governments which led to the Cold War. Important figures were Joseph Stalin, Nikita Sergejevitsj Krutzhev, President Harry Truman, President Franklin Roosevelt, and President John F. Kennedy were all important figures of the Cold War.
Part II
The Truman Doctrine was a turning point on the U.S.A. all by a speech given. The speech was about helping any country that was fighting against communism. it led to a change because we wanted to help whoever went against communism and countries started fighting against communism so we started helping which meant a lot more wars for longer time periods. From 1947-1989 we (U.S.A.) helped fight which led to us gaining more respect but also enemies which advanced into the Cold War.
- President Harry Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884
- he went to France in World War I as a captain in the Field Artillery
- he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace on June 28,1919
- he was elected a judge of Jackson County Court in 1922
- he became a Senator in 1934
- he became the 33rd United States President in April 12, 1945
- Truman approved the use of atomic weapons during the war against Japan
- he denied the regular U.S. policy regarding foreign affairs which resulted in him creating the Truman Doctrine
- he was an important figure during the Cold War
- he passed away on December 5, 1972
- President Harry Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces
- the Truman Doctrine effectively reoriented U.S. foreign policy
- it's usual way of handling foreign affairs was by withdrawing and avoiding regional conflicts not directly involving the U.S.
- the Truman Doctrine arose from a speech delivered by Truman before a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947
- the cause of the speech was because the British Government announced that they would no longer provide military and economic assistance to the Greek Government in its civil war against the Greek communist party on March 31
- Truman asked Congress to support the Greek Government against the Communists and provide assistance for Turkey since it also had been dependent on British aid
- the U.S. Government believed that the Soviet Union supported the Greek Communist war effort at the time
- they were worried that if the Communists prevailed in the Greek civil war, the Soviets would ultimately influence Greek Policy
- the Soviet's further meddling in Greek and Turkish affairs and the withdrawal of British assistance to Greece proved it necessary for the Truman Administration to reorient American foreign policy
- Truman requested $400,000,000 from Congress to aid both the Greek and Turkish Governments and support the dispatch of American civilian and military personnel and equipment to the region
- Truman justified his request arguing that the Communist victory in the Greek Civil War would undermine the political stability of the Middle East
- this could not be allowed in light of the region's immense strategic importance to U.S. national security
- Truman argued that the U.S. was compelled to assist "free peoples" in their struggles against "totalitarian regimes"
- Truman believed that the spread of authoritarianism would "undermine the foundations of international peace and hence the security of the United States"
- the Truman Doctrine became "the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures"
- during World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union worked with each other as allies against the Axis powers
- however, the relationship between the 2 nations were strained and tense
- America had known about Soviet communism and concerned about Joseph Stalin's tyrannical rule of his own country
- the Soviet Union had their long resentment of America for their refusal to treat the USSR as a legitimate part of the international community as well as their delayed entrance into WWII, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Russians
- after the war ended, these grievances grew into a sense of mutual distrust and enmity
- Postwar Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe fueled many Americans' fears of a Russian plan to control the world
- meanwhile, the USSR came to resent what they perceived as American officials' rhetoric, arms buildup and interventionist approach to international relations
- because the atmosphere was hostile, no single party was entirely to blame for the Cold War
- some historians even believed that the Cold War was inevitable
- by the end of World War II, most American officials agreed that the best defense against the Soviet threat was a strategy called "containment"
- in 1946, in his famous "Long Telegram", the diplomat George Kennan this policy
- he wrote that the Soviet Union was "a political force committed fanatically to the belief that with the U.S. there can be no permanent modus vivendi (agreement between parties that disagree)
- as a result, America's only choice was the "long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies"
- President Harry Truman agreed with this policy and declared that "it must be the policy of the United States" before Congress in 1947, "to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation...by outside pressures"
- this way of thinking would shape American foreign policy for the next 4 decades
- the Cold War begins in 1947 at the end of World War II and lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991
- the 2 main fighting nations were the United States and the Soviet Union(USSR)
- conflict spanned on from subtle espionage in the biggest cities in the world to violent combat in the tropical jungles of Vietnam
- it ranged from nuclear submarines to the most technologically-advanced satellites in geosynchronous orbits in space
- one of the earliest events in the origin of the Cold War arose from the anti-Communist remarks of British leader Winston Churchill
- the containment strategy also provided the rationale for an unprecedented arms buildup in the United States
- in 1950, a National Security Council Report known as NSC–68 had echoed Truman’s recommendation that the country use military force to “contain” communist expansionism anywhere it occurred
- American officials encouraged the development of atomic weapons like the ones that had ended WWII
- in 1949, the Soviets tested an atom bomb of their own
- in response, President Truman announced that the U.S. would create an even more destructive atomic weapon: the hydrogen bomb, or "super bomb"