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Why Was the Truman Doctrine Formed?

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Why Was the Truman Doctrine Formed?
Why was the Truman Doctrine formed?

When Harry S. Truman took over from Roosevelt in 1945 he made it clear that he intended to contain the spread of communism and his get ‘though plan’ with Stalin was an example of the lengths he was willing to go to. In 1947, in an immediate response to the British government announcing that it could no longer afford to keep its soldiers fighting Communist rebels in Greece, 2 months later Harry Truman and his cabinet came up with the Truman Doctrine. It barley took him any consideration at that time, but it was in his speech to congress in a plea to approve the plan that it became evident he had thought about this moment for quite a while. This was contradictory to the public mood as historian Matt Davies claims ‘It seemed to the public that Truman was impulsive and had not thought about the vast sums of money being pumped into Europe.’

To understand the roots of the formation of the Truman Doctrine it is imperative to know about the problems Truman faced in American Congress itself. Henry Wallace was completely against Truman’s plans and mocked them to the extent that Truman decided to sack him because he was openly criticizing his in congress. He believed that Truman’s get though policy was wrong and in fact lead to more tension with Russia. He claimed in a speech in 1946 ‘the tougher we get, the tougher the Russians will get.“ This eventually led to the sacking of Henry Wallace, but his campaign against American foreign policy got backing therefore it got recognition as Truman now started consulting his government about the situation with Russia. Truman then asked his ambassador to Russia to write up a report on how the situation should be handled in the aftermath of Wallace’s sacking. What came back from the ambassador George Kennan was an 8000-word document in which he evidently backs containment. He claimed that ‘It is not enough to urge people to develop political processes similar to our own’ and also said that the

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