Topic > The History of the Truman Doctrine

World War II was the most barbaric and devastating war in human history, and Europe turned into a devastated continent with high unemployment and shortages of basic necessities such as food , electricity and fuel. In France and Italy there was widespread popular discontent with poverty, the scarcity of food and basic necessities and people began to look for communism as a possible solution to their problems and in France and Italy there was a large support for the communist parties. At the end of World War II the major European powers were weakened after over 60 million deaths in 6 years of fighting in World War II, and two superpowers remained in the world: the United States of America and the USSR who fought together as allies to defeat Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. The USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) was a vast area covering 1.6 of the planet's land surface, it was a federal state under a communist regime and led by a single party. The United States of America was a liberal democracy based on capitalism and with a military age (the only country with atomic weapon) and also had the strongest industry and economy in the world. Both powers try to peddle their influence in Europe and the United States through the Truman Doctrine and the Marshal Plan, while the USSR wanted to protect its borders and establish a pro-Soviet government in liberal countries. And Europe split into two blocs: Western bloc and Eastern bloc. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Truman Doctrine is named after former President Harry S. Truman gave his speech to Congress on the 12th of 1947, when the world had been divided into two blocs and with the end of the World War he had given the world two superpowers. As we know, the Cold War was fought between USSR and USA, it was a war between two ideologies of communism and capitalism, United States of America promoted capitalism and USSR promoted communism, so soon after the end of the second war world these two superpowers enter into an indirect clash. Harry S. Truman's speech was based on a political statement regarding the situation at the time. This speech becomes the Truman Doctrine and historian often says that Harry S. Truman's speech was the official declaration of the Cold War. The main point of Harry S. Truman's speech was military assistance and economic aid to Greece and Turkey in the fight against communism. In addition to this, Harry S. Truman openly announced that the United States would send military and economic aid to countries whose political stability was threatened by communism. The Truman administration believed that both nations, Greece and Türkiye, were threatened by communism. In Greece, rivals had been fighting the Greek royal government since the end of World War II. And Greece was ruled by a monarchy and there was an attempt by communist rivals to overthrow the monarchical government and establish the communist government. In Turkey the Soviets demanded some kind of control over the territory of Dadanil from which Turkey was able to dominate the strategic waterways from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, so the USSR pressured Turkey to provide the USSR with a military base and a transit right along the Turkish Strait. So this was a great opportunity for the United States to take responsibility towards Greece and Turkey and eradicate the ways of communism from these two countries. In his speech, Harry S. Truman said that Greece is threatened by the activity.