12 mars 1947 - The Truman Doctrine

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This started when the British Embassy told the US government that it could no longer provide financial aid to the governments of Greece and Turkey. This was particularly important to the US because the Soviet Union was attempting to take over the crumbling democratic governments with a Communist-led insurgency known as the National Liberation Front (EAM/ELAS). President Truman addressed Congress on March 12, 1947, asking for 400 million to provide assistance to Greece and Turkey and establish the 'Truman Doctrine'. This would state that "It must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."

By the time President Truman had addressed Congress, many of the legislators had already agreed to endorse a program to support Greece and Turkey. This was because of the words of State Dean Acheson who came up with the "domino theory". This was the idea that if one country, (particularly Greece and Turkey, as they are at a critical geological location between the USSR and democratic states), fell to communism, then the states past that would also fall. He said that communism would spread to Iran and even as far as India.

Obviously, this did not seem appealing to the United States, who had been trying to stop the spread of communism across Europe and every other country in the world as well. This is when the idea of containment began guiding U.S. foreign policy for the next 40 years. The idea was to stop communism from spreading anymore, but not necessarily to destroy the communism in the countries it had already overtaken. The Truman Doctrine was used as an excuse by the US government for its future actions in Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Central America, and other countries as well.

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