What was the essence of the Truman Doctrine and what was the situation that prompted this statement?

Answer 1

The essence of the Truman doctrine was that the United States would lend aid (money and weapons) to any nation that was being threatened by outside influences. However-the subtext is much more important. The Truman Doctrine essentially declared Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Truman and his advisors believed that no free nation would ever willingly turn Communist. Therefore, any nation that had a successful Communist party meant that it was in the process of being subverted. This ignored the fact that the Soviet Union had a hard time reigning in most other communist leaders. In the words of Truman himself, the doctrine was designed to "scare the hell" out of the American people and keep the US engaged in the rest of the world, rather than return to our traditional isolationist foreign policy. The Doctrine was drafted in response to the Greek Civil War. In 1944, before the end of World War II, the Greek Communists had been at the forefront of the anti-Nazi resistance, while the Greek monarchy had the backing of Adolf Hitler. After Britain pulled out of the Mediterranean, the US stepped in to fill the power vacuum. Truman issued his statement to support the pro-Nazi monarchy. The Greek communists were defeated-but not because of American action. Tito-the communist leader in Yugoslavia, had been allowing the Greek communists to cross into his nation and use it as a base for action. Tito then had a falling-out with Stalin. Tito was afraid Stalin would use the Greek Communists against him, and so shut the border. The Greek Communists were then able to be captured and destroyed.