CONTAINING THE THREAT

President Truman was willing to go to great lengths to halt the spread of communism – and in Greece and Turkey, he succeeded

- NIGE TASSELL

While the Marshall Plan (see page 44) attempted to bolster the economies and domestic harmony of European countries after World War II, the Truman Doctrine was the United States foreign policy initiative aimed at keeping these states free from physical attacks by "armed minorities or by outside pressures". No reading between the lines was necessary. This was the US's clearly stated intention of ensuring that communist forces would not interfere with or undermine the sovereignty of its allies. This was unlikely to involve direct military action from the US, but instead would take the form of financial aid packages for countries attempting to withstand communist uprisings.