The Truman doctrine

Résumé du document

On March 12th 1947, President Truman spoke before the Congress to convince them to approve of his doctrine. The latter is one of the most important speeches in American foreign policy since it represents the beginning of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Harry Truman was elected in 1945 after the death of Franklin Roosevelt. This was considered a fluke, since he was elected by accident as a vice president. Therefore, he had virtually no experience in foreign affairs when he took office. After the end of the Second World War, Harry Truman was highly influenced by a telegram written by the Secretary of State in Moscow, George Kennan. In this eight-thousand word telegram, George Kennan warned the US authorities that the Soviet Union was threatening peace in the world and declared that the world was divided into two parts. He advocated a "containment policy" against communism so as to stop the Soviet regime's expansionism.

Extraits

[...] He was in favour of the creation of the United Nations because he considered that it could be beneficial for these countries, exactly like Woodrow Wilson who truly believed that the League of Nations could create peace in the world. Unfortunately, the League of Nations failed to fulfil his objectives whereas the United Nations still exists to fix conflicts in the world. [...]

[...] President Truman said in his doctrine that Greek state was threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men led by Communists”. It means that he not only wanted to help Greece recover from the war but he also wished to get rid of any communist activity in that country. Therefore, Truman asked the Congress to bring “supplies and equipment” to the Greek army in order to “restore the authority of the government”. In his speech, he paid particular attention to the way this aid was to be used by the Greek and Turkish authorities and to the reasons why the United States should help both countries. [...]

[...] But it also marked a real change in American foreign policy. Many historians approved with the fact that the United States went from an isolationist policy to liberal internationalism. They really thought that Harry Truman wanted to impose his point of view on other countries, that is liberal states should intervene in other sovereign states in order to pursue liberal objectives. At the time, his main goal was to help countries that had suffered from the war and were under the influence of the Soviet Union because he considered that the United States was to be the leader of the new world order. [...]

[...] But they disagreed on many issues because they were too different politically. In February 1946, George Kennan, a long-standing Soviet expert, wrote the most famous diplomatic message of modern times the Long Telegram- from the US Embassy in Moscow. In it, he warned of the Soviet Union's tendency to expansion and of the need for the United States to oppose it clearly. This telegram was sent to the Secretary of State and was read by the White House in 1947. [...]

[...] The Soviet Union and its satellite countries refused to accept this support and this increased the tensions between the two countries. Moreover, we shall stress the fact that the Doctrine is real manifesto for international liberalism. In his speech, Harry Truman proved to be a Wilsonian because he advocated a typical idealist policy. Indeed, his main goal was to bring peace and prosperity all over the world. He thought that the United States could not be a powerful country without helping countries in a difficult position. [...]