Greek Civil War, Truman Doctrine & Containment, 12 Mar 1947

• Both the USSR and the USA regarded each other as a threat to national security and as an expansionist and a global strategic threat
• By Sept 1946 – emergence of a Cold War was seemingly irreversible 
• East-West relations had developed a momentum that was grounded in mistrust and fear
• Always been the characteristics of the relations but a new set of dynamics were added post-1945
• The USA was the dominant world economy and intended to use in as part of the FP - new approach
• USSR had succeeded in establishing the beginnings of national security based on a system of satellite states in EE
• Realised that its security could be further enhanced by developing its portfolio of pro-Soviet states
• Meant expanding pro-Moscow communist-led regimes beyond Europe 
• JS had agreed that Greece should remain in the Western sphere of influence post-war
•  After Nazi liberation, a civil war broke out between the monarchists and the Greek communists
• Britain provided aid to the anti-comm forces but in Feb 1947, it announced that this aid was no longer available, and appealed to the USA to assume the financial burden
• Truman Doctrine was of fundamental importance in terms of the dynamics of international relations from 1947
• International relations would be founded upon division, each side suspicious of the other
• The doctrine institutionalised this as the working basis of East-West relations for at least the next 25 years
• Significance – HT didn’t turn to the UN as the arbiter of the dispute in Greece
• This could’ve been because he was convinced that the USSR would use its veto power to prevent any UN peacekeeping intervention in the Greek Civil War