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The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan - Coggle Diagram
The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan
The 'domino effect'
President Truman was scared that other countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East would fall to Communism
In 1947, when Truman gave the speech, communist parties, supported by the Soviet Union had control of Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria already had communist governments in 1947.
Truman was scared of something called a ‘domino effect’. As more nations got communist governments, they would then support communist revolutions in nearby countries funding populist uprisings
The Truman Doctrine
The exact contents of the Truman Doctrine said:
"I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way."
His way of saying he will assist countries in need of financial, military and political aid so that they do not resort to communism
The Marshall Plan of 1947
The Marshall Plan provided economic assistance to back up the Truman Doctrine. It was named after George Marshall, the US Secretary of State at the time
The USA gave European nations $12.7bn. However, the biggest recipients were Britain and France. Britain received $2.7bn in Marshall Aid. West Germany only received $1.7bn. Turkey received £137 million
The money was spent to encourage trade with the United States and a Technical Assistance Program was designed to implement improvements aimed at increasing productivity
Josef Stalin stopped any communist nations supported by the Soviet Union from accepting Marshall Aid
Containment
The Truman Doctrine and the 1947 Marshall Plan increased tensions between the Soviets and the US
Through the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, the USA sought to contain communism through military and economic assistance to primarily Western European countries. This was part of a policy known as ‘containment’
Differing perspectives on the Marshall Plan
The Soviet Union saw both the 1947 Truman Doctrine and the 1947 Marshall Plan as a threat to Eastern Europe.
The Soviet Politburo (leadership board of the communist party in Russia) viewed the Marshall Plan as an example of America's 'economic imperialism'
The USA thought that giving rebuilding, poor nations money would stop people from supporting communism. Demanding equality and redistribution of all wealth was likely to be more attractive to starving & unemployed people than employed and wealthy individuals in a prosperous nation