Analyzing Potsdam's 'Atomic Diplomacy'
‘Atomic Diplomacy’:
At Potsdam the President had seemed in a conciliatory mood toward the interests of the Soviet Union, traditional Russian concerns like those for an ‘ice free’ port were treated with an earnestness they didn’t deserve, and when it came to any serious measures like the fixing of borders post war, the American President would note that such important matters should rightly be postponed until the meeting of the “full peace conference” expected to take place sometime in the fall of 1945 in San Francisco. However Truman’s briefing book for the Potsdam Conference (declassified in 1975) stated “It seems clear that it would be desirable to avoid the convocation of a full-fledged peace conference to deal with the major political …show more content…
In a single sentence Truman had defined American policy for the next thirty years. Whenever and wherever an anti-Communist government was threatened, by indigenous insurgents, foreign invasion, or even diplomatic pressure. (as with Turkey), the United States would supply political, economic, and most of all military aid. The Truman Doctrine came close to shutting the door against any revolution, since the terms “free peoples” and “anti-Communist” were thought to be synonymous. All the Greek government, or any dictatorship, had to do to get American aid was to claim that its opponents were …show more content…
This sphere of democratic “free peoples” included the vast territories of the pre and post-war colonial powers, and, by the implication of the Truman Doctrine, any peoples seeking independence in those areas from their colonial overlords would be deemed communist inspired. It also meant that fighters for colonial independence were minorities, funded by outside interests, against the majority, and against democracy – defining them as armed insurgents and terrorists. Before the War (August 14th 1941) Roosevelt and Churchill had issued the Atlantic Charter (developed from FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech), that, like the Wilson 14 Points, had called for national self-determination in the post-War world – a promise which, again, many in the third world took to heart.
The Congress passed $400 million in aid for Greece and Turkey on May 15th 1947, setting a standard whereby appropriations passed in the aftermath of the perception of communist expansion. The Marshall Plan for rebuilding aid for Europe passed the Congress only in March of 1948 after the
At Potsdam the President had seemed in a conciliatory mood toward the interests of the Soviet Union, traditional Russian concerns like those for an ‘ice free’ port were treated with an earnestness they didn’t deserve, and when it came to any serious measures like the fixing of borders post war, the American President would note that such important matters should rightly be postponed until the meeting of the “full peace conference” expected to take place sometime in the fall of 1945 in San Francisco. However Truman’s briefing book for the Potsdam Conference (declassified in 1975) stated “It seems clear that it would be desirable to avoid the convocation of a full-fledged peace conference to deal with the major political …show more content…
In a single sentence Truman had defined American policy for the next thirty years. Whenever and wherever an anti-Communist government was threatened, by indigenous insurgents, foreign invasion, or even diplomatic pressure. (as with Turkey), the United States would supply political, economic, and most of all military aid. The Truman Doctrine came close to shutting the door against any revolution, since the terms “free peoples” and “anti-Communist” were thought to be synonymous. All the Greek government, or any dictatorship, had to do to get American aid was to claim that its opponents were …show more content…
This sphere of democratic “free peoples” included the vast territories of the pre and post-war colonial powers, and, by the implication of the Truman Doctrine, any peoples seeking independence in those areas from their colonial overlords would be deemed communist inspired. It also meant that fighters for colonial independence were minorities, funded by outside interests, against the majority, and against democracy – defining them as armed insurgents and terrorists. Before the War (August 14th 1941) Roosevelt and Churchill had issued the Atlantic Charter (developed from FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech), that, like the Wilson 14 Points, had called for national self-determination in the post-War world – a promise which, again, many in the third world took to heart.
The Congress passed $400 million in aid for Greece and Turkey on May 15th 1947, setting a standard whereby appropriations passed in the aftermath of the perception of communist expansion. The Marshall Plan for rebuilding aid for Europe passed the Congress only in March of 1948 after the