Compare And Contrast The Truman And The Marshal Plan

Shortly after World War II President Truman was facing a new threat that he felt was the ultimate threat to the American way of life. The threat was known as Communism. Truman, like many others around the nation, felt that the Soviet Union was trying their best to start Communist revolutions in democratic counties. This was happening due to the fact that country’s like Greece and Turkey’s economy was “tanking” and political revolutionaries were starting to point the finger at western greed.
Truman was having a difficult time containing this issue as it was. He was now facing a new problem in the east with North Korea and later be a threat of war with China because of it. As if this was not bad enough, Greece was also looking to go to Communism. …show more content…
First, he felt that the Greek Civil War would endanger the politics of Turkey, which would have a domino effect to the middle east. Second, it was because Truman wanted to help with the fight and assist a people that wanted to be free. American national security, he argued, could not be supported if totalitarian regimes, like the Soviet Union existed. His doctrine offered assistance to democratic nations that would benefit the US in the long run. Out of this benefit, it can be argued that the Marshal Plan was conceived. The Marshal Plan was a European Recovery Program that funneled some $13 billion dollars into rebuilding the Europe after WWII. It successfully sparked a recovery plan and restored hope for counties that thought they lost everything. While some could argue that this plan was more of a “show of force” to influence countries to stay democratic, The Marshal Plan did help. The Soviets at the time did not feel this was appropriate though. While countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia wanted the aid, it was ultimately shut down due to Soviet interference. (History.com Staff. …show more content…
Truman had his troubles with domestic issues and so did Eisenhower. While Eisenhower saw more of the after effects of the cold war, it may have been Truman’s fault, ultimately, that the world was falling into a cold war, a Korean War, a Chinese’s War, and quite possibly the Third World War. However, Eisenhower promised changed in his campaign video when he ran against Truman. While Eisenhower did end the Korean war, the after effects of the Chinese conflict and the Indochina conflict with the French and Vietnamese stirred up a storm the “Kansas Cyclone” could not get out