The Truman Administration Response to the Perceived Threat of Communist Expansion

THE TRUMAN ADMINISTRATION RESPONSE TO THE PERCEIVED THREAT OF COMMUNIST EXPANSION
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Introduction
Reeling from the effect of world war, the European states were in turmoil; economies remained shuttered. The case, for example, was Greece, which was susceptible to attacks from the Soviet Union. Soviet communism incursion also dominated this period, and Kremlins action presented the Soviet Union as power hungry and power seeking hegemony. The Soviet actions were evident in their support for ELAS, which was responsible for internal violence in northern Greece. The turmoil meant Greece was in dire need and that their request to the Truman administration for financial and economic aid highlighted the magnitude of the situation.[Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, "'A Growing Feeling of Certainty in the Righteousness of our Step:' The Truman Doctrine," in The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, and the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006), 61-79.]
Keen to subvert the communist activities in Europe and contain its spread, the Truman administration crafted a foreign policy plan which would help stop communism in Europe. Truman argued that if Greece went down then, Turkey would follow, and the entire wave would cause an inevitable chain of "falling dominoes." It is in this backdrop that the "Truman doctrine, the containment plan, and the marshal plan was crafted to help steer American foreign policy post world war two, through to the following fifteen to twenty years. The foreign policy is also known as the Truman doctrine thus formed the basis for the cold war that would later follow.[Ferald J. Bryan, "George C. Marshall at Harvard: A Study of the Origins and Construction of the ‘Marshall Plan’ Speech," Presidential Studies Quarterly 21, no. 3 (Summer 1991): 489-502.]
This paper analyses Truman’s regime's reaction to the communist threat. In doing so, the paper will focus on how Secretary marshal and other officers crafted the marshal plan, which was used to implement the Truman doctrine, the containment plan and also look at another relevant phenomenon like the iron gate.
Discussion
Immediately after the world war, the state of European nations was deplorable and warranted immediate intervention. The Soviet Union was sure the governments would integrate and allow them to amass larger territories. In what Truman considered the "Greece crisis," the American government had to act quickly to save Greece financially, economically and through military aid. It is argued that by supporting Greece, Truman aimed to stop ripple effect on neighboring Turkey, and other states which would be affected.
The Iron Gate was the political boundary that divided the Soviet territories from the Western Europe. It is from the Iron Gate phenomenon that Truman acted to respond to the crisis facing other European nations. The crisis mean that the other side of the Iron Gate read Eastern Europe was under threat of takeover by the communist using what Truman called ‘salami tactics’ which were against the Stalin promised at the Yalta conference.[Churchill, Winston. Iron curtain speech. Great Neck Pub., 2009.] [Fer...