Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Folke bomb here. Ever, since George Washington,
Speaker 1: named King George, started going at it, foreign policy in
Speaker 1: the United States has been a tickle ish affair. Well,
Speaker 1: stay out or jump in, be aggressive or be possessive,
Speaker 1: stand on your own or seek help, lead or follow,
Speaker 1: put up walls or call for them to be torn down.
Speaker 1: The answers are never easy, but that's what makes the
Speaker 1: Truman Doctrine so impressive. A Few, if any, American foreign
Speaker 1: policy stances have held the weight, lasted as long, or
Speaker 1: changed the world as much as the Truman Doctrine. It's
Speaker 1: the post World War Two strategy designed to contain the
Speaker 1: spread of communism and hold America's wartime ally, the Soviet Union,
Speaker 1: in check. Even today, with other global threats emerging and
Speaker 1: a stated America First foreign policy, the ideas behind the
Speaker 1: Truman Doctrine endued and inform the country's worldview. On March
Speaker 1: twelfth of nineteen forty seven, Harry S. Truman, the thirty
Speaker 1: third President of the United States, laid out the center
Speaker 1: beam of what came to be known as the Truman
Speaker 1: Doctrine in a speech to a joint Session of Congress.
Speaker 1: He said, in part, I believe that it must be
Speaker 1: the policy of the United States to support free peoples
Speaker 1: who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by
Speaker 1: outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free people's
Speaker 1: to work out their own destinies in their own way.
Speaker 1: With the Truman doctrine, America stepped away from a largely
Speaker 1: isolationist history, took the lead in battling communism and furthering democracy,
Speaker 1: and forged relationships with nations militarily, economically, and otherwise that
Speaker 1: endured today. So today, let's take a closer look at it.
Speaker 1: Less than two years after the end of World War Two,
Speaker 1: many nations, especially in Europe, were in economic shambles and
Speaker 1: right for exploitation. Two of them, Greece and Turkey, had
Speaker 1: major problems with insurgents and faced political uncertainty without outside aid.
Speaker 1: Even the once mighty British were mired in the struggles
Speaker 1: of rebuilding their war shattered country. They can no longer
Speaker 1: chip in to help others, So Greece and Turkey instead
Speaker 1: turned to the United States, and Truman, a Democrat, turned
Speaker 1: to Congress. Republicans then held both the House and the
Speaker 1: Senate looking for four hundred million dollars in foreign aid.
Speaker 1: That's more than four point six billion in today's dollars.
Speaker 1: We spoke with Sam Roche, the supervisory archivist at the
Speaker 1: Harriest Ruman Librarian Museum in Independence, Missouri. He explained there
Speaker 1: was a key meeting at the White House in late
Speaker 1: February with congressional leaders and George Marshall, who was Secretary
Speaker 1: of State, made a strong pitch, and so did Dean Atchison,
Speaker 1: who was the Under Secretary of State. They talked about
Speaker 1: the merits and the urgency of doing something to help.
Speaker 1: The British had announced the they were going to withdraw,
Speaker 1: and Marshall and Atchison didn't want there to be a
Speaker 1: vacuum that might mean the Soviets would step into that vacuum.
Speaker 1: After Truman's speech before Congress, a push to pass the
Speaker 1: Grease Turkey Aide bill was championed by Marshall, Atchison and others.
Speaker 1: They managed to bring over even staunch isolationists like Senator
Speaker 1: Robert A. Taft, though some influential voices such as former
Speaker 1: Vice President Henry Wallace and conservative journalist Walter Littman remained opposed.
Speaker 1: Pitching a new foreign policy initiative, one that went against
Speaker 1: long held isolationist tendencies, to a Congress run by the
Speaker 1: opposition party and a war weary American public was a
Speaker 1: tall order. Rochet said, there was a lot of selling
Speaker 1: to do, and selling it, I think was the right
Speaker 1: word to try to sell it to the American people
Speaker 1: and to Republicans and to conservative Southern Democrats who were
Speaker 1: very influential as well, that this was really a good
Speaker 1: thing because it was in our interest. In the end,
Speaker 1: the idea that commerce between the US, Eastern Europe, and
Speaker 1: the Middle East could be negatively impacted, that the Soviets
Speaker 1: could gain more power by stepping in something that could
Speaker 1: alter world politics for generations to come, was enough. The
Speaker 1: Greece Turkey Aid Bill passed convincingly. Truman signed the bill
Speaker 1: in May of nineteen forty seven in America set out
Speaker 1: on a new path in Europe and eventually other places
Speaker 1: in the world. So what did it mean then and
Speaker 1: what does it still mean today? The journalist Lippman coined
Speaker 1: the term Cold War what would become a decades long
Speaker 1: standoff between the US and the Soviet Union that began
Speaker 1: at the end of World War Two, the implementation of
Speaker 1: the Truman Doctrine was one of its major milestones. In
Speaker 1: eight the so called European Recovery Plan otherwise known as
Speaker 1: the Marshall Plan, was signed into law, designed to help
Speaker 1: rebuild Western Europe and further block any Communist in roads.
Speaker 1: Without the new foreign policy outlined in the Truman doc
Speaker 1: trin the Martial Plan would not have been possible. In
Speaker 1: nineteen forty nine, the US and eleven other nations in
Speaker 1: North America and Europe, in order to quote guarantee the
Speaker 1: freedom and security of its members through political and military means,
Speaker 1: formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO, which now boasts
Speaker 1: thirty member countries, has ever since acted as a deterrent
Speaker 1: to Soviet and Communist expansionism. Even before the Truman Doctrine
Speaker 1: became official policy, its theories were in use as World
Speaker 1: War Two was ending. Soviets occupied Korea, of prompting the
Speaker 1: US to send troops to the peninsula in a standoff
Speaker 1: that eventually exploded into the Korean War. Immediately after World
Speaker 1: War Two, the Soviets in the US squared off over Iran,
Speaker 1: too and Germany. In nineteen fifty four, well after the
Speaker 1: Truman Doctrine was initiated, President Dwight Eisenhower warned of a
Speaker 1: domino effect if communists prevailed in Southeast Asia. A prelude
Speaker 1: to the US involvement in Vietnam, Ronald Reagan built upon
Speaker 1: the Truman doctrine with the Reagan Doctrine of the nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: which not only called for containment of Soviet expansionism, but
Speaker 1: the backing of anti communists everywhere. With the breakup of
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union in nineteen one, the Cold War technically ended,
Speaker 1: but the basic ideas behind the Truman doctrine, containing communism,
Speaker 1: championing democracy, helping others internationally remained important to many modern
Speaker 1: day politicians. Richet said the Truman doctrine was sort of
Speaker 1: an explication of a new foreign policy, very international minded.
Speaker 1: For Truman, it was in the self interest of the
Speaker 1: United States to work with other nations in the interests
Speaker 1: of peace and resisting maybe a verbal war that you
Speaker 1: see through the United Nations, where he was very active.
Speaker 1: Truman helped build a structure of peace through the Truman Doctrine,
Speaker 1: through the United Nations, through NATO, through the Martial Plan.
Speaker 1: There's a real ideology behind it, but fundamentally Truman sought
Speaker 1: in the United States best interest. Former United Kingdom Prime
Speaker 1: Minister Winston Churchill gave a speech in Missouri in ninety
Speaker 1: and Truman was there, warning of a communist expansion across
Speaker 1: Europe and calling for a reply that avoided war. In
Speaker 1: that speech, Churchill said, an iron curtain has descended across
Speaker 1: the continent. Surely we should work with conscious purpose for
Speaker 1: a grand pacification of Europe within the structure of the
Speaker 1: United Nations and in accordance with its charter that I
Speaker 1: feel is an open cause of policy, a very great importance.
Speaker 1: A year later, Truman made his pitch to Congress. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by John Donovan and produced by Tyler Klang.
Speaker 1: For more on listen lots of other curious topics, visit
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.