The Truman Doctrine

The founding of the CIA. www.explaininghistory.com

In the top right box are British soldiers ghting a communist uprising in Greece at the end of the Second World War. Does this t with our conventional view of the war? Does it t with or conventional view of the Cold War?
Above is George Kennan, the US Ambassador to Moscow who wrote to Truman the famous 'long telegram' in 1946, which set out a very clear view of Soviet intentions. Homework: Look on Edmodo where there is a copy of the telegram. How accurate was Kennan's view of the USSR?

By 1947 Britain was

bankrupt and her role as global policeman was over. In order to build the welfare state in Britain and to repay crippling war debts, the British began to give up foreign commitments. One of these was keeping Greece and Turkey in Britain's sphere of inuence. Churchill had agreed this

with Stalin - at what conference?

Stalin had broken his

word and had interfered in Greece, supporting the Communists through Tito in Yugoslavia. Stalin also demanded the Dardanelles from Turkey. Stalin had also refused to withdraw from northern Iran after the end of the war. What do you think

the British and Americans would make of these actions?

Initially the CIA was

meant to be a small body that simply provided the president with a daily news update about world affairs, but:

importantly evaluation to the key question:

To what extent was

the Truman Doctrine a cynical manipulation of the US people?

Truman was bothered by

Russian expansion in Eastern Europe, and by Britain's inability to control territory that could potentially go communist. American popular opinion in 1946-47 favoured a return to isolation. Truman used his speech of March 21st to scare the US population out of isolationism, when had Roosevelt done something similar?

It had no Congressional
or Presidential oversight (it did not have to tell anyone in government what it was doing)

Remember to select
appropriate evidence to support your judgement.

It had an almost
unlimited budget.

It was initially staffed by

former members of the wartime Ofce of Strategic Services, many of whom were unpredictable mavericks who believed that a secret war against communism had to be waged.

The result of the Truman

Doctrine speech was a major shift in US policy, he said that wherever free peoples were threatened by totalitarian regimes, that the USA would use force to defend them. Congress voted $400 million in aid to the Greek Government who defeated the communists.

The other major effect of

the Truman Doctrine was a wave of nationwide anti communist panic in the USA.

The beginnings of anti

communist McCarthyism can be traced back to 1947.

Truman merged the

Ofce of the Army, Navy and Airforce into the Department of Defence at the Pentagon in the National Security Act of 1947, an act that also created the CIA.

Focus All the above is just

information, you now need to apply interpretation and analysis and most