'The Truman Doctrine of 1947 marked the real beginning of the Cold War.' How far do you agree with this view?

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‘The Truman Doctrine of 1947 marked the real beginning of the Cold War.’ How far do you agree with this view?

Danielle Solanki-Mensah

In the lead up to 1947, many events had taken place to make Truman a suspicious man – the Nazi-Soviet Pact and Yalta/Potsdam had left the Soviets looking less than trustworthy. Although, the East is not solely to blame – The Iron Curtain Speech in 46 was the first open attack on communism, so from here, the West had two reasons to continue an attack. The first could have been the expectation of a counter attack from Eastern Europe, especially as the atomic bomb had been showcased for all to see (and steal) in 45. The second might have been a matter of control, with an open attack, they had to follow it up with evidence, and subsequently prepare themselves for the worst case scenario.

        The Truman Doctrine came out of Keenan’s Long Telegram where he prophases about the takeover with communism. Keenan being an American agent living in Russia, there is the question of authenticity. Can we believe everything written in that 8000 word telegram to be utter truth, or a simple example of a hyperbolic story? The man hated communism, he hated Stalin, this seems to be the perfect opportunity to bring both down, however, the telegram consisted of a basic post-war Soviet outlook, using evidence from the Soviet’s background history and so on. It concluded that Russia had no aims to work with the U.S. and in fact, looked to destroy it (along with democracy). The contents of the Long Telegram seems to be the long term reactant that caused a major shift in American policy, perhaps giving the Truman Doctrine the authenticity and authority it needed to wage a more open and physical attack on communism. Without it, it is wholly unjustifiable, and would therefore not hold any weight in what it could do.

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        The Truman Doctrine itself is a declaration of U.S.A.’s undying support for those ‘free people’ resisting the threat or attack of communist takeover. It was also announced at a time when Britain could no longer fund the civil war in Greece, and geographically this was huge threat to Europe. Greece was not an island, and once communism had devoured the people there, what was there to stop it from spreading all over Europe?  

To actually put the Truman Doctrine into play, Marshall Aid had to be introduced also. This was money that was available to any country in Europe ...

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