Most Americans in the 1950s did not expect that Harry Truman would become one of their most highly regarded presidents. By 1952, just before he announced his decision not to run again, only 25% of the people thought he was doing a good job. Within a decade, however, most American historians regarded him as one of the nation's greatest presidents.
Obviously, Truman was not so effective in domestic affairs as his predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt, had been in the 1930's.
Truman's record in foreign affairs, while also flawed, was more significant. He effectively developed a larger role for the nation in world affairs than it had played before World War II. Truman's policy helped the recovery and reconstruction of western Europe, but more importantly they help contain the rapid spread of Communism, such policies were the hallmark of the cold war.
Seeking to carry out Roosevelt's policies, Truman brought to fruition the plans for the unconditional surrender of Germany, which came on May 8, 1945 and the establishment of the United Nations. He attended the UN founding conference in San Francisco in late April. Truman made the decision to use atomic bombs against Japan, believing that they would end the war quickly, save lives, and place the United States in a position to revolutionize Japanese life. Two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, coupled with Russia's declaration of war against Japan, brought the war to an end on August 14, 1945.
Some persons have argued that Truman used the bomb to influence the Russians rather than the Japanese, but they have demonstrated only that he and some of his aides hoped that this new evidence of American power would restrain the Russians at the same time that it accomplished American objectives in Japan. By August 1945, Truman had become more critical of the Russians than Roosevelt had been. As time passed in 1945, Russian efforts to dominate eastern Europe became more obvious and alarming to American officials, and the need for Russian help, which had influenced Roosevelt so much, significantly declined as Germany and Japan were defeated and the United Nations was established.
Given the Russian military presence and determination in Eastern Europe, Truman had little opportunity to be effective there, but he found larger opportunities in southern and western Europe. Economic and political weaknesses seemed to give the Russians a chance to extend their influence into the region, but a series of American moves from 1947 to 1949 promoted economic improvements, strengthened non-Communist governments, and contributed to the containment of Communist groups.
TRUMAN DOCTRINE
The first significant application of the containment doctrine came in the Easter Mediterranean. Great Britain had been supporting Greece, where communist forces threatened the ruling monarchy in a civil war, and Turkey, where the Soviet Union pressed for territorial concessions and the right to build naval bases on the Bosporus. In 1947 Britain told the United States that it could no longer afford such aid. Quickly, the U.S. State Department devised a plan for U.S. assistance. But support for a new interventionist policy, Senate leaders such as Arthur Vandenberg told Truman, was only possible if he was willing to start 'scaring the hell out of the country' Truman was prepared to do so. On Wednesday, March 12, 1947 President Truman addressed the Congress.
One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guaranties of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.
The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.
Then came the dramatic sentence that set forth what was to become known as the 'Truman Doctrine.' The president said, 'I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.' The immediate objective of the policy was to send U.S. aid to anti-Communist forces in Greece and Turkey, but it was later expanded to justify support for any nation that the United States government believed was threatened by Communism during the Cold War period.
Marshall Plan
Containment also called for extensive economic aid to assist the recovery of war-torn Europe. With many of the region's nations economically and politically unstable, the United States feared that local communism parties, directed by Moscow, would come to power. On June 5, 1947, George ...
and the Honor Code is a tragic figure who believes strongly in social order, but questions the idea of fighting for glory. When Aias and Odysseus are sent by Agamemnon to plead with ' to fight for the Greeks, denies them, saying "There was no gratitude given for fighting incessantly forever against your enemies. Fate is the same for the man...
is the smallest but most thickly populated province of Cananda. It?s people usually call their province ?The Island? or simply P.E.I. The people live in small scattered communities. but the average number of people to the square mile or kilometre is greater than any other province. Charlottetown is the capitol city of P.E.I.. P....
Introduction Of all the ethnic groups in the world, the Kurds are one of the largest that has no state to call their own. According to historian William Westermann, "The Kurds can present a better claim to race purity...than any people which now inhabits Europe." (Bonner, p. 63, 1992) Over the past hundred years, the desire for a...
The Great Depression was the worst economic slump ever in U.S. history, and one which spread to virtually all of the industrialized world. The depression began in late 1929 and lasted for about a decade. Many factors played a role in bringing about the depression; however, the main cause for the Great Depression was the combination...
Medieval times were shaped greatly by religious and secular motives to form centralized power and control. The religious leaders, in particular, were very influential in this process of centralization. The methods used to attain this power were directed at various aspects of their influence in order to realize the greatest control possible....
During the period of Greek history from the last years of the Persian Wars till the beginning of the First Peloponnesian War, the primacy of Sparta declined whileAthens was gaining increased influence in Greece. The Athenian, Thucydides (460-400 BC), one among few contemporary historians, left behind the most creditable records about this peri...
Egyptologists had lost interest in the site of tomb 5, which had been explored and looted decades ago. Therefore, they wanted to give way to a parking lot. However, no one would have ever known the treasure that lay only 200 ft. from King Tut's resting place which was beyond a few rubble strewn rooms that previous excavators had used to hold the...
When World War I ended on November 11, 1918, peace talks went on for months due to the Allied leaders wanting to punish the enemy and 'dividing the spoils of war.' A formal agreement to end the war was made and called the Treaty of Versailles. The issue that took the most time were the territorial issues because the empires of Russia...
The victory of the English in the initiated a series of actions that eventually caused the American Revolution. These actions consisted of England not allowing the colonists to move westward, starting to heavily enforce the Navigation Laws, and issuing new laws to pay the war debt. After the war, Great Britain emerged as the dominant power in N...
"When Operation Barbarossa is launched, the world will hold its breath!" - Adolf Hitler On the night of June 22, 1941, more than 3 million German soldiers, 600 000 vehicles and 3350 tanks were amassed along a 2000km front stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Their sites were all trained on Russia. This force was part of...
The Internet began as the ARPANET during the cold war in 1969. It was developed by the US Department of Defense's (DOD) research people in conjunction with a number of military contractors and universities to explore the possibility of a communication network that could survive a nuclear attack. It continued simply because the DOD, it's contrac...
- As they want to punish Massachusetts for rights of self government, other colonies reacted by calling conventions, called "Congresses", (Prevential Congresses), and these were usually self appointed/elected conventions of local leaders. They would come together and ponder ways of how they would conquer the support of Massachusetts. _ Surround...
Heroes The name Ulysses instantly conjures up images of heroism and adventure. Even modern readers who are less versed in classical literature recognize the larger-than-life character, if not the specific details of this legend. It is with these associations in mind that one approaches the poetic monologue 'Ulysses' by Alfred Lord Tenny...
According to archaeologist in order to be defined as a civilization certain criteria must be met. Early archaeologists believed in order to be considered a civilization a society must have cultural superiority, which meant they must have the ability to read and write. If this was the sole criteria used to judge if a society was labeled a civi...