The Truman Doctrine Redux:

21 Century American Foreign Policy and the Middle East

st

by

Vassilios Damiras

The Genesis of the Doctrine

The geostrategic role of the Truman Doctrine in helping prevent the fall of the
then Greek kingdom to communism during the late 1940s created a powerful design for
American diplomatic and strategic planners that they then utilized throughout the Cold
War. Its critical precepts continue in the current war against global terror under the Bush
administration. This article analyzes the geostrategic and geopolitical significance of the
Truman Doctrine, and its 21st century application to current American involvement in the
Middle East. Moreover, since this specific policy combined the theoretical principals of
realism and idealism, it is argued that Harry S. Truman created the foundations of
American liberal imperialism in his readiness to fight Soviet/Slavic communism as an
ideological menace in the Balkans and Greece’s immediate geographic vicinity. Parallels
will be drawn between the Truman Doctrine’s resistance toward communism of the late
1940s, and the present Bush administration’s focus on counter-terrorism.
Finally, the implementation and execution of strategies founded on the Truman
Doctrine established a strong military presence in the southeastern Mediterranean area
and the Middle East, which presence, with its strategic implications, prevails today. In a
“Truman Doctrine redux,” the Trumanesque Bush foreign policy strategy has expanded
the American presence in the Middle Eastern region in the war on terror.
President Truman, influenced by his classical education, believed that in
protecting Greece from communism, American military advisers defended the cradle of
Western civilization, indeed of their own American civilization. Furthermore, Greece
founded the glorious Byzantine Empire and the Greek Eastern Orthodox Christian faith.
Without a doubt, Truman recognized that the modern Greek socio-political system was
not as pure in democratic and cultural values as during the ancient times; nevertheless the
United States, in Truman’s interpretation, had an obligation to assist the country that
provided the tenets of the American democracy. In addition, he realized that through
Greece, American military power would significantly shape the region.
The Truman Doctrine opened a new page in American foreign policy. President
Truman’s reaction to the Korean military crisis in 1950 relied on his strong conviction
that “this is the Greece of the Far East. If we are tough enough now,” he declaimed,
“there won’t be another step.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower perceived the ongoing
military crises in Indochina and the Middle East through the geopolitical/geostrategic
lessons of Greek Civil War (1947-1949), warning that if these strategic regions fell to
Soviet communist influence, Europe and other regions could likewise collapse under
Soviet totalitarian pressures. In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy and Adlai
Stevenson argued forcibly that the Greek case provided an example for American
military action in Vietnam.

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 Moreover, Walt Rostow, chair of the U.S. State Department’s policy planning
council, assured U.S. Secretary Dean Rusk that “there is no reason we cannot win as clear
a victory in South Vietnam as in Greece, Malaysia, and the Philippines.” Henry Cabot
Lodge, Jr., who had strongly supported the Truman doctrine in its infancy, declared in a
1964 speech that “We, of the Free World, won in Greece…. And we can win in
Vietnam.” In 1965, immediately after the first U.S. combat troops were dispatched to
South Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson alluded to the Truman Doctrine in
reassuring the American public that the U.S. armed forces would win the war against
communist aggression in the southeast Asian region as they had won in Greece in the
1940s. The following year, Rusk quoted Truman’s 1947 address to U.S. Congress in
justifying American military involvement in South Vietnam.
In the current war on terror, George W. Bush has used the basic foundations of
the Truman Doctrine to combat Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. The Bush Doctrine
uses liberal imperialism to both fight terrorism and promote American democratic values
globally, particularly in the Middle East. The Truman Doctrine indelibly influenced both
past and present American foreign and defense policies.
An Analysis of the Truman Doctrine in a Historical-Political Perspective
There have been disparate interpretations of the Truman Doctrine since its
inception and implementation. The Doctrine has been the focus of serious debate since its
promulgation. Critics have called it the “first shot of the Cold War”; an American global
license for liberal imperialism; an exaggerated response to an imagined communist threat
that led to the monster of McCarthyism; a reactionary foreign policy placing the
American government on the side opposite freedom, political and social reform; strong
proof of an “arrogance of power” that continuously forced United States into other
countries’ domestic political quarrels.
Defenders of the Truman Doctrine argue that this specific policy illustrated
American determination and ingenuity in the fight against communism. The Doctrine was
representative of the American commitment to free world ideals and beliefs. When the
Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan were combined, magnanimous financial aid assisted
first Greece and Turkey and later, other nation-states threatened by communism. Yet, in
focusing on these important issues, historians have failed to credit the Truman
administration with creating a foreign policy designed to protect freedom by helping
embattled countries help themselves.
The tenets of the Truman Doctrine left their imprint on the seminal stages of an
American foreign policy that was adaptable, restrained, and not necessarily based on
military power. Later, when President Kennedy introduced “flexible response,” Truman
and his advisers (some advisers later joining Kennedy) adopted a foreign policy intended
to fight the ever-growing political and strategic challenges to democracy with a broad-
ranging arsenal of responses corresponding to the socio-political danger at hand.
Moreover, President Truman’s Doctrine arguably anticipated to the Nixon
Doctrine of the 1970s, which called for partnerships based on the nation at risk sharing
the burden of safeguarding itself by essentially providing the bulk of the manpower
needed for its security. The Truman administration’s approach to the Greek problem
proved idealistic in purpose, but realistic in application. Its composite thrust was political,

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economic, and military, allowing for adjustments and fine-tuning as the nature of the
threat changed. The political facet included creation of a stable democracy in Greece;
economic emphasis supported viable economic opportunities in the Greek population.
The military focus was upon capable defense of Greek national interests by modern
Greek armed forces, assisted by their American counterparts. The policy constituted a
viable response to multifaceted threats against which real victory lay in convincing
democracy’s enemies that they could not win.
Although various historians have long debated the political and strategic reasons
for the Greek government’s victory, one observation has been especially stressed:
American military aid was solely responsible. The Greek communists could have gone on
indefinitely if they had not switched from guerrilla tactics to conventional warfare, and if
they had continued to receive refuge and outside military assistance. Tito’s defection
from the Soviet bloc broke the guerrillas’ resistance was considered crucial, enabling
American firepower to forge a victory. Although these ingredients surely proved vital to
the final outcome of the Greek civil war, the full explanation does not lie either in the
Balkans or in American military assistance.
The Truman administration achieved its objectives in Greece because of a flexible
American foreign policy that was global in theory but constrained by reality. White
House advisers at that time had defined the nation’s interests in Greece in relation to the
rest of the world, developed a strategy with manageable goals, and operationalized it
within the limitations of America’s capacity to influence events and people. Most
significantly, they cultivated a Greek populace rich in democratic values and traditions,
staunchly nationalistic, who opposed communism and welcomed U.S. aid. America’s
foreign policymakers kept the struggle within the technical confines of a civil war,
repeatedly refusing to permit the conflict to grow into larger war. After achieving the
financial aid bill’s passage, the administration toned down its rhetoric to avoid military
confrontation with the communists, quietly persuaded the British to remain in Greece as
part of a bilateral security effort, and thus gained time for the American strategy to reach
fruition.
The Truman Doctrine provided the rationale for a global strategy that rested on
equivalent and limited responses to carefully defined and continually changing levels of
danger. During the Greek involvement, the Truman administration considered every
option from outright withdrawal to direct military intervention. In 1947, the communist
emergency in Greece necessitated strong military aid and operational advice; once that
specific threat subsided in late 1949, the American focus shifted to long-range economic
rehabilitation. Decisions resulted from recommendations and proposals presented not
only by specialists in Greek and Turkish affairs, and others.
Vital information came from British and Greek analysts, the U.S. State and
Defense departments, U.S. National Security Council, Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), and other intelligence organizations, such as the Defense
Intelligence Agency and U.S. Army Intelligence. The new foreign and defense policies
emerged from serious considerations regarding their impact on Greece and neighboring
nation-states, on America’s allies and the nonaligned countries, and on Americans at
home. Averting a unilateral and more dangerous involvement was crucial; the possibility

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of graceful de-escalation or even total withdrawal was debated, as were the effects of
events in Greece on global strategy. During all this time, the Truman White House
sustained continual assessments of the Greek dispute to keep the American commitment
flexible and under control.
On the economic level, United States did the following:
• assisted in the creation, for the time in Greek history, of a national electric
power system, designed by American engineers, modeled on the TVA, with a
quasi-independent, public corporate entity interlinking new hydroelectric
generating stations at various sites, with Athens Piraeus Electric Company
(APECO) and a new thermal generating station based on the mining of lignite
at Aliveri;
• supported the expansion and modernization of Greece’s traditional industries
(cement, textiles, fertilizers) while promoting new ones;
• helped re-open and re-equip the chromite, bauxite and pyrite mines, and to
clear and re-equip the nation’s ports and harbors, and the Corinth Canal;
• re-equipped the fishing fleet and agricultural processing and storage plants;
• helped develop village potable water supplies, completing an anti-malarial
program;
• contributed to modernization of hospitals and clinics;
• provided for re-building and improving of highway and railway networks
from Kalamata to Alexandroupolis;
• facilitated building and repair of museums, archeological sites and hotels to
support the goals of future tourism.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided the following financial support:

• to create and train a Greek force roughly equivalent to America’s county
agents for Greek villages, including instruction in fertilizer and pesticide use,
general land management and animal husbandry;
• to undertake large-scale land reclamation works;
• to supply the government’s mechanical cultivation service and its well-
drilling service with heavy equipment
• to construct farm-to-market roads and to link formerly isolated villages
with trunk and highway systems and to market towns.

In military affairs, the American government created special programs to arm and
train the Greek armed forces. Eventually, Greece and Turkey joined the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO). The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan helped create
a self-sustaining and self-reliant Greek nation-state, ready to negotiate future military,
political, or economic threats. The United States became a guardian of Greek democracy;
without American military aid, it was likely, or at least plausible, that Greece would have
succumbed to the Soviet communist expansion. If the Soviets had managed to control the
Greek countryside, the survival of the free world would have been at risk.
Control of the Bosporus Passage and the Dardanelles Straits was the raison d’etre

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underlying the American posture and strategic actions within the region, due to ongoing
Soviet aspirations and intentions for direct access to the Aegean. In 1945, during the
Potsdam Summit meeting, Stalin openly claimed the right to create military bases in the
Thessaloniki or Alexandoupolis harbors as alternatives to bypass the Turkish Straits.
Simultaneously, the Soviet regime exerted acute political pressure on the Turkish
government to revise the Montreaux Convention to gain joint control of the Straits with
the Turkish Republic (Proposals of June 22, 1946).
The Truman precepts buttressed the policy of containment and organized
resistance against Soviet communist expansionism, and were the foundation of a long-
lasting American foreign policy with global dimensions and implications. NATO, the
American Joint Task Forces in the Mediterranean, and Atlantic and Pacific
communication/surveillance installations and facility/military bases became and remain
pillars of American global policy promulgated in the Truman Doctrine and Marshall
Plan.
The American engagement in World War II (1939-1945) incurred a total loss of
$341 billion with 460,000 personnel casualties. It was the greatest investment in peace
and military security any American administration had ever made. It demanded an
everlasting guarantee. Containment doctrine was the appropriate answer to those
concerns at that time, in locations distant from the American continent. Greece’s and
Turkey’s military roles in the Marshall Plan and later in NATO would be key factors in
the balance of power in the geostrategic system, along with other European nation-states
strengthened by the American military presence on the Continent.
A full network of military bases and related facilities in Greece and Turkey was
organized within the framework of various bilateral accords with the American
government to support integrated security functions in the Eastern Mediterranean. (The
current Bush administration has used these facilities to pursue the war in Iraq.) The
Aegean islands area and the island of Crete are crucial to the necessary strategic breadth
and depth to defend the straits and thereby, access to the Mediterranean Sea, and are
under Greek operational responsibility as part of NATO’s command structure. Greece
also committed to American such as the critical Suda Bay naval base for the U.S. Navy
Sixth Fleet. Currently, the U.S. Defense department is in the process of upgrading the
Suda Bay naval base in order to accommodate more naval and Special Forces assets in
the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist/insurgent operatives.
The Truman Doctrine positioned the United States as protector of Greece and its
respective regions, and continues to play a vital role even in the current global situation.
During the twentieth century, Greece offered much and lost many in the battles for
freedom and the democratic values. In no other period of its long history has Hellenism
suffered such great upheaval and destruction. For years, the Truman Doctrine tenets have
safeguarded the Greek culture and nation from a variety of exogenous threats.
The Contemporary Implications of the Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was born out of the American geostrategic and geopolitical
perception of Greece as a key nation-state regarding security in the Middle East, crucial
to protection of American national interests in the Mediterranean region. Greek and
Turkish territory is a unified strategic area in the American view, with both of the

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countries operating as supplementary security elements. The consequence of this strategic
outlook was the contemporaneous entry and integration of both nation-states into the
NATO civil-military alliance.
During the Greek civil strife, the Truman Doctrine put into realistic practice what
Alexander the Great said in the town of Opi in 324 B.C., “For me any good foreigner is a
Greek, any bad Greek is worse than a barbarian.” In 1947, the “good foreigners” were the
Americans. The “bad” Greeks were the Greek communists who attempted to destroy the
values of the Greek culture. The implementation of Truman’s doctrinal concepts aborted
this process.
Although history indicates that the most convincing argument in international
relations is inextricably tied to power, the greatest achievement of political human beings
is the building of universal peace based on mutual confidence, and the consolidation of
human rights and liberties. In recognition of the value of universal peace, the wall of
bipolarity was demolished, and the world set on the road to peace. It is not only national
and military power that has made the United States a global hegemon; it is rooted in the
trust of people and in human expectations for freedom and political and economic
prosperity. The Truman Doctrine incorporated these realistic and idealistic norms and
values.
Moreover, the Bush administration continues to deal with current geopolitical
challenges based on the complex formulations so well developed by Truman. Present
security threats include instability in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Middle East, due
to local independence and irredentist conflicts, nationalism, terrorism, and Islamic
fundamentalism. In addition, illicit proliferation of nuclear weapons and guided missile
systems are serious dangers to U.S.-European, not to mention global, security.
Furthermore, the expansion of NATO and its inclusion of operational areas
outside its traditional borders are important innovations emerging from the Truman
Doctrine in support of the pursuit of freedom around the globe. Today’s NATO
comprises a unique, organized multinational force, largely responsible for pan-European
security. NATO continues to evolve in its capabilities relevant to the new geostrategic
challenges of the 21st century.
The military execution of the Truman doctrine was based on realistic perceptions
of how to apply hegemonic military power in times of crisis (much as Bush has done
presently). Protecting democracy was based on the idealism of expanding and promoting
democracy across the globe. The Truman principles coherently fused realism and
idealism; this is the main rationale for their continue applicability in today’s increasingly
complex geopolitical and geostrategic environment. Truman based his foreign policy on
ideas from his classical education and precepts of classical liberalism. This eclectic and
sophisticated educational/philosophical background assisted him in creating a cogent and
cohesive foreign policy with an enduring effect on American decision-making processes,
policies and outcomes. The Bush administration follows the tenets of classical liberalism
regarding post 9/11 American foreign and defense policies. Finally, the Bush Doctrine,
similar to the Truman Doctrine, has introduced a political, economic, and military
evolution to Afghanistan and Iraq, for the purpose stabilizing and establishing democratic
values and beliefs. In the current war on terror and in promotion of democracy, the Bush

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Doctrine clearly parallels the Trumanesque concepts for global security and democratic
development.