Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid

Successes:

  • Greece: Greece was in a state of civil war for 6 years trying to quench communist forces, with the help of the Truman doctrine and Marshall aid (which supplied $300 million), they fought off communism.

  • Turkey: Turkey could control access to the Mediterranean Sea for south Russia, therefore they were under immense pressure from the USSR after WWII. With the help of the Truman doctrine, Turkey was able to maintain its independence.

  • This led to the creation of NATO, a military alliance to prevent potential Soviet military expansion, of which Greece and Turkey are a part of.

  • $13.5 billion flows into 16 countries across Europe

  •  By giving money to countries in difficult economic situations, meant that the people of said country were less likely to revolt against their government or join extremist parties, much like what happened to Germany during the depression. Historian William Hitchcock argued that countries with poor economic situations led “towards hostility, fascism, and ultimately Nazism”.

  •  A financially weak Europe meant that America had no strong trading partners therefore hurting America’s financial state. If Europe found themselves economically devastated, they would never be able to repay America’s war efforts 

Failures:

  • US citizens felt that too much money was being given to Western Europe instead of their own country.

  • The USSR set up Cominform and Comecon in response to the Truman doctrine and Marshall aid which allowed the USSR to coordinate the policies and economies of all Soviet satellite states and forbade any of the USSR’s satellite states to accept Marshall aid.

  • This pulled focus from the spread of other ideologies, such as nationalism in Cuba and Vietnam. When the US intervened in these countries, they faced massive setbacks

  • This angered the USSR further, as it revealed the US would use their foreign policy to fight communism which is the key starting point of the Cold War

  • This meant that the US felt the need to get involved in other countries to fight the spread of communism meaning they would face further casualties. The prime example being Korea, although this was a UN invasion, the US played a particularly big role in the combat, which led to the death of over 6000 Americans.