Truman Doctrine Containment Analysis

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John Lewis Gaddis in 1978 stated that there were “two powers separated only by a power vacuum” of devastated countries in Europe in 1945. The panic that the Soviet Union would seek to exploit any power vacuum was pronounced under the broad words of Truman to the United States congress in 1947; by this year, the world saw a shift in US international policy. The Truman Doctrine committed the US to political and ideological containment that was to influence American international policy in the decade to come. In this vain, the succeeding Marshall Plan on 5th June, which promised massive economic aid to recovering countries, not only ensured US access to these markets but also tied US to West European states, impeding Soviet influence. In assessing…show more content…
Gaddis argues that the Truman Doctrine was simply in line with the long held belief that American security depended on maintenance of a European balance of power . The US was obligated to respond to threatened European nations from Stalin’s barbaric regime’. Leffler demonstrated that it was not so much the issue of Sovietization as it was revolutionary nationalism, British weakness, and a power vacuum that prompted the US only acted on the principles of maintaining an external environment conducive to the endurance and prosperity of the nation’s domestic institutions . Gaddis argues that Truman was not breaking new ground when he described the world polarized between democracy and totalitarianism, that even Woodrow Wilson’s efforts to mdeiate World War I showed US opposition of totalitarian threats that date back to 1917. However, even if the United states had an international obligation, Folly suggests the Doctrine “reflect[s] Truman’s own approach to foreign affairs as it had evolved, which was that the United States needed to act positively and decisively to defend its interests, and that those interests extended well beyond the Western Hemisphere.” So the impact of this policy showed the unfolding of a security dilemma, in which nations took steps to bolster their own security infringe upon other security concerns of their rivals , which would trigger a wave of distrust in the Cold
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