Channels, Fall 2018

Page 64 Mach • Before Vietnam lightly. Although he hoped the situation would not devolve into wholesale war, he advised officials to take thoughtful precautions as if they were fighting a war. Such was the gravity of the situation Kennan described to US officials, and the US did not need to wait long to see Kennan’s warnings come to fruition. In March 1946, only a month after Kennan’s “Long Telegram,” civil war broke out in Greece. Greek Communist forces backed by the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, and Albania, fought with government forces backed by the British and the United States (although true American assistance did not arrive until 1947). The Soviet support of this attempted communist takeover displayed what Kennan predicted in his “Long Telegram.” A separate government report, the Clifford-Elsey Report, written in September 1946, supported Kennan by arguing the USSR had and would continue to provoke animosity between the East and West through any and all methods available. The Soviet support of the Greek communist force, the report argued, was a clear example of a Soviet attempt to gain entrance into a previously non-communist state. George Marshall commented, “we are faced with the first crisis of a series which might extend Soviet domination to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia,” a statement with which Kennan and others readily agreed. Both Kennan’s “Long Telegram” and the Clifford-Elsey Report directly contributed to the Domino Theory, which is the idea that the fall of one country to Communism would result in Communist insurgencies in the surrounding countries. This theory influenced the development of the most significant foreign policy decision of the 20th century: the Truman Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine, working in conjunction with the Marshall Plan, radically reoriented American foreign policy toward two interrelated goals: 1) rebuilding a democratic, capitalist dominated Europe, and 2) defending against an ever expanding, ever aggressive Soviet-style Communism. Truman believed there was no other option; the information he received reinforced containing communism. His political advisors cautioned that a failure to check Soviet expansion would result in Soviet domination of Europe. In response to the aggressive actions of the Soviet Union and the information received from political advisors like Kennan, Truman called for Congress to allocate $400 million in assistance to Greece, and later Turkey, in their fight against Communist insurgencies supported by the Soviet Union. These Communist insurgencies could result in far-reaching effects felt by the entire world. The concern was that if Greece or Turkey fell to Communism, other rebuilding European nations would also be in danger of falling to Communism. Although Kennan cautioned the President not to promise support to all the world in fighting against Communism, Truman declared that it “must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures.” The line in the sand was drawn. The Truman Doctrine cemented the approach of the Truman administration in Europe and eventually in Southeast Asia; it would be hardline, fixed, and immovable against the expansionistic plans of the USSR. Dean Acheson, who served as Truman’s Secretary of State, would play an ongoing role in the development of foreign policy. Truman trusted him implicitly and lauded his instrumental part in crafting the Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine, however, was only part of the two-pronged attack on Soviet expansion. The Marshall Plan played an equally essential role in checking the