This source depicts Truman hammering down a line of dollars to defend Western Europe from communism as there are stormy clouds coming from Eastern Europe, showing the takeover of communism. Also in the Truman doctrine, the main aim was to defend Western Europe with American dollars as they instilled a policy of containment, meaning that communism would not spread and remain within its existing boundaries. To do this, the congress granted $400 million to support Greece and Turkey as Turkey was in charge of the Dardanelles and if they came under the influence of the USSR Greece would be surrounded by communism and fall too – this is a domino effect which was prevented in 1949. However when it comes to the Marshall Plan one may say that that was his main aim. This is because the aim of the Marshall Plan was to help restore normal economic activity in Europe so that they would not turn to communism for help in desperate measures. To do this the congress granted $13 billion to aid fuel, raw materials, goods, loans and food, machinery and advisers.
Therefore I agree with this source as by using US dollars Truman was able to defend Western Europe from communism as they did not turn to the USSR for help and managed to jump start their economies. Furthermore the only way Truman defended Western Europe against communism with the Truman Doctrine was with American dollars as if they did not use American arms and money, Britain could not have stayed in the Greek civil war and they could not help Turkey. If turkey had been surrounded so would have Greece and a domino effect would have taken place so the USSR could take over Europe. If it wasn’t for the US dollars Truman would have been able to defend Western Europe.
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