The Truaman Doctrine 1947 - Research Paper Example

Truman Doctrine The Truman doctrine arose from the speech that was given by American President Harry Truman on March 12, 1947. He delivered this speech before a joint session of Congress in which he identified the need to support free nations of the world. The doctrine established that United States would provide political, economic and military assistance to all the democratic states who were threatened by the totalitarian forces. His speech declared that America would intervene any nation in the need of help to fight the expansionist policies of the Soviet Union.

He also established in his speech that the war torn nations of Europe required rebuilding and rehabilitation projects and that is why America, being a major economic and military power, must aid these nations. The immediate cause of his speech was the condition of Greece and Turkey who were under the grave threat from the communism expansion.Truman also reminded in his speech that America had fought the Second World War with the aims of maintaining peace throughout the world, protecting freedom and democracy.

He argued that these communists were a threat to the free world and must be contained and prevented from expanding further. He further emphasized that a threat to the free people meant a threat to the United States of America since they were the guardians and protectors of the free world. This is why he convinced the Congress from his speech that Greece and Turkey must be given assistance to tackle Soviet threat. Truman also pointed out in his speech which later became a doctrine that the world was at that time divided into two halves.

He tried to explain the ideological differences between the capitalists and the communists. He defined the communists as the bad guys and the capitalists as the good guys. Foner talks about this doctrine which "set a precedent for American assistance to anticommunist regimes throughout the world, no matter how undemocratic, and for the creation of a set of global military alliances directed against the Soviet Union" (Foner 844)All the clauses of the Truman’s speech hold immense importance in history and especially the period after the World War II.

Truman speech became the foreign policy of United States for the years to follow after 1947. It was for the first time that America’s policy took a complete turn from the isolationist policy of Monroe Doctrine to the interventionist policy of Truman Doctrine. This marked the period when United States decided to not remain aloof from the affairs of the world whereas would take every measure to contain the communist threat to the world and most importantly their own ideology. Since USA was a capitalist state with free enterprises and markets, the expansion of the communist agendas were threatening to the United States trading partners and the economy.

This is why Truman used perception and established cordial relations through aid and assistance to European states, in order to gain trust, allies and trading partners.The Truman Doctrine holds significance in history of Cold War as it also marked the beginning of the 45 years long conflict between the two super powers of the world, USA and USSR. The Truman Doctrine was highly significant in containing communism across the world and stopped it before it could spread. It is also believed to have helped bring about the concept of collective security within the nations.

ReferencesFoner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2009. Print.