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Unlock This CourseRemember, by early 1947 Communist governments were taking control across Eastern Europe. Truman now feared that Communism would spread further, into the eastern Mediterranean.
From 1946 Greece was torn by a civil war. Communist fighters were trying to overthrow the royal government. They were helped by Greece's Communist neighbours, such as Yugoslavia. British troops and British money had propped up the Greek government since 1944.
Stalin was putting pressure on Turkey. He wanted a share in controlling the Turkish Straits, the narrow sea route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and Soviet bases there. Britain had been giving Turkey aid too.
Then came the trigger. Britain was close to bankrupt after the war. On 21 February 1947 the British government told the USA that it could no longer afford to help Greece and Turkey, and that its aid would stop at the end of March. If nobody stepped in, Greece might fall to the Communists and Turkey might give way to Stalin. Truman's advisers warned that Communism could then spread to the Middle East and Western Europe.
On 12 March 1947 Truman spoke to the US Congress. He asked for 400 million dollars of aid: 300 million for Greece and 100 million for Turkey. But he went much further than two countries. He said the world faced a choice between two ways of life. One was based on free elections and freedom of speech. The other was based on terror, a controlled press and fixed elections. Then he made a promise:
'I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.'
This promise became known as the Truman Doctrine. Truman never named the Soviet Union, but everyone knew what he meant. Congress agreed to the money in May 1947. With American aid and advisers, the Greek government defeated the Communists by 1949, and Turkey stayed out of Soviet control.
Key terms:
Why did the Doctrine matter? It was a turning point in American policy. The USA gave up isolationism and took on the job of resisting Communism anywhere in the world. This policy is called containment. It also changed the tone of the quarrel. Truman had told the world that it was split into two rival camps, one free and one not. To Stalin, this was an open accusation and a threat.
The Doctrine promised help. The Marshall Plan delivered it. Truman called the two policies 'two halves of the same walnut'.
Reasons for the plan. Two years after the war, Europe was still in ruins. Factories, railways and homes had been destroyed, food and coal were short, and the winter of 1946-47 was one of the hardest in living memory. The US Secretary of State, George Marshall, believed that hungry, hopeless people would turn to Communism. Communist parties were already large in France and Italy. There was also a selfish reason: the USA needed a prosperous Europe to buy American goods.
What it offered. On 5 June 1947, in a speech at Harvard University, Marshall offered American help to rebuild Europe. He said: 'Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.' The offer was open to every European country, including the Soviet Union, if they worked out a joint plan and shared information about their economies.
Sixteen countries accepted. Congress was slow to agree to the cost, but the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in February 1948 changed minds, and the plan became law in April 1948. Over the next four years the USA gave about 13 billion dollars, mostly as food, fuel, machinery and raw materials. Britain and France received the most. Western Europe's industry recovered quickly, and support for Communist parties there fell.
The Soviet foreign minister, Molotov, came to talks in Paris in the summer of 1947 but walked out. Stalin would not open the Soviet economy to American eyes, and he feared that aid would pull Eastern Europe towards the USA. Soviet leaders attacked the plan as dollar imperialism. Poland and Czechoslovakia wanted to take part, but Stalin made them refuse.
Don't mix the two up. The Truman Doctrine was a promise (a policy), first backed by aid to Greece and Turkey. The Marshall Plan was a programme of economic aid for Europe. Don't say Truman sent the American army to fight in Greece: he sent money, weapons and advisers. Don't say the Soviet Union was left out of the Marshall Plan: it was invited and Stalin refused. And containment meant stopping the spread of Communism, not driving it out of Eastern Europe.
Explain two effects of the Truman Doctrine on relations between the USA and the Soviet Union. [8 marks]
One effect of the Truman Doctrine was that it openly divided the two countries into rival camps. In his speech to Congress on 12 March 1947, Truman said the world faced a choice between two ways of life, one based on free elections and one based on terror, and he promised to support free peoples resisting 'armed minorities or outside pressures'. Although he did not name the Soviet Union, the meaning was clear. This led to worse relations because the USA had now publicly committed itself to containment, so Stalin saw the speech as an accusation and a threat, and any hope of rebuilding the wartime alliance was gone.
A second effect was that the Doctrine led to the Marshall Plan, which deepened the division. Having promised to resist Communism, the USA backed the promise with money: first 400 million dollars for Greece and Turkey, then about 13 billion dollars of Marshall Aid for Europe from 1948. The Soviets attacked this as dollar imperialism. Stalin refused the aid and made Poland and Czechoslovakia refuse it too. As a result, Europe was split into two economic camps, and each superpower was more convinced that the other was trying to spread its power.
What lifts this to the top level: it explains two separate effects, supports each with precise facts (dates, sums of money, countries) and shows step by step how the Doctrine led to each one.
The question asks for effects on relations, so don't spend your time describing the civil war in Greece or what Truman said. For each paragraph, name the effect, give one or two precise facts, then use a phrase such as 'this led to' or 'as a result' to show how the Doctrine made relations worse. Write two effects: one effect alone cannot score more than half marks.