Truman Red Scare Essay

On March 12 1947 President Harry Truman delivered a speech that pivoted America's history and foreign policy. The speech was given during the start of the Cold War and laid out America's response to Soviet expansion in the world. The doctrine showed a change in American foreign policy from self-centered to a more global effort to protect American ideals like democracy and capitalism worldwide. Truman was the Democratic 33rd President of the United States, he was born in Missouri in 1884 and had various jobs before pursuing politics. He took office after President Roosevelt's death in 1945 and stepped up from vice president to president. Truman was a Democrat and made significant social and political changes like the Marshall Plan and the Truman

This fear of Communism was caused by communist and anarchist ideas held by Russia that would encroach on American ideals. The Russian Revolution was when the Bolsheviks(Communist Party) took control of Russia and made it into the Soviet Union. (Childress,3) This led to the Red Scare and the fear of communism that became ingrained in American culture during the 20s. During World war two America was allied with the Soviet Union. This relationship, however, was unstable after the war and it progressively got worse and worse. The X article and the Long telegram were two documents written by diplomat George F. Kennan in Moscow. (Brenes,6) These two documents revealed Soviet policies that would pose a problem to the United States and capitalism as a whole. On page 5 the textbook discusses these policies that said “Stalin's policy was shaped by a combination of Marxist and Leninist ideology, which advocated revolution to defeat the capitalist forces in the outside world” (Brenes,5) America now knows of these ideas due to the X article and long telegram decided to try and prevent the further spread of communism. Truman Doctrine was presented on March 12, 1947. The cold war had just begun to start and America decided it needed to halt Soviet aggression and spread ideas to other countries. Greece and Turkey are major countries that reside right next to the Soviet Union that could be

(Brenes,6) Following WW2 Turkey had been under pressure from the Soviet Union to allow trade through the country to get to the Mediterranean Sea. Turkey however refused to allow trade and tensions began to skyrocket. This led to a Soviet showing their navy to intimidate the Turkish ( Maechling,1) Also in Greece in 1944 the British were fighting back against the Communist Greece party put there by the Axis powers. The British helped the nationalist Greece party take back the capital of the country. The British then continued to help Greece quell the communist uprising in the country. However, when the British decided to withdraw their help in 1946 Greece feared a communist takeover. (Britannica,2) These factors led to the creation of the Truman Doctrine. The anti-capitalist ideas of Communism and the rising tensions in Turkey and Greece due to the soviet union and communism all led to the Truman Doctrine being necessary for America's foreign