Containment meant resisting further communist influence. American leaders used aid to strengthen threatened governments and make recovery possible.
In March 1947, President Harry Truman asked Congress, the American law-making body, to fund help for Greece and Turkey. Britain could no longer afford its support. Greece faced a civil war involving communist-led forces; Turkey faced Soviet pressure. Truman argued that threats to these distant countries could also endanger wider peace and American security. The Truman Doctrine was this public commitment to help peoples resisting armed groups or outside pressure.
This was containment: trying to prevent communist influence from spreading further. It differed from rollback, which meant trying to remove communist control where it already existed. Containment could use money, supplies and military assistance; it did not always mean sending an American army.
In June 1947, George Marshall, the US Secretary of State responsible for foreign policy, proposed European recovery aid. The Marshall Plan began in 1948. Aid could restore production, food supplies, jobs and trade. American leaders hoped that improving daily life would reduce desperation and the appeal of communist parties, while creating stronger trading partners. Helping people and gaining strategic influence could be aims of the same programme.
Worked example: From a source detail to an inference about Truman
Source A says Truman sought help for Greece and Turkey and linked economic stability with political freedom. What does that suggest about his priorities?
- Start with the detail: he wanted American resources used to support two countries far from the USA.
- Explain the connection: he believed that unstable governments could fall under hostile influence, with effects beyond their own borders.
- Make the inference: Truman treated stability abroad as part of American security. The proposal therefore served a political aim as well as meeting immediate needs.
Watch out for this
The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan were two names for the same aid announcement.
The March 1947 doctrine set out a commitment to help threatened peoples, beginning with Greece and Turkey. Marshall proposed a wider European recovery programme in June; it began in 1948. They supported containment through related but different measures.
Check your understanding
How could Marshall aid serve containment without sending troops?
- Recovery could restore jobs and supplies, reducing the instability that American leaders feared would help communist parties.
- Economic aid had a security purpose only when an American army occupied the receiving country.
- Recovery and strategic influence were separate aims that could not belong to the same programme.