The Truman Doctrine

Abstract

In October 1944, Churchill concluded the percentages deal, dividing the Balkans into spheres of influence with Stalin. He had in mind a long-standing British foreign policy objective: excluding Russia from the Mediterranean. Greece was recognised as a British concern. Keeping Greece, along with neutral Turkey, independent and friendly, was central to British strategic thinking in the Mediterranean. To that end Churchill had ordered British forces to intervene when the Greek Communist resistance took up arms to prevent the restoration of the Greek monarchy. As in Yugoslavia, the Greek Communists had grown powerful during the war. They were able to fight a prolonged and bitter civil war. Supporting their preferred government came to be an expensive burden to Britain. It was far from the only one. Stalin was exerting intense pressure on Turkey to cede naval base areas in the Dardanelles, as well as considerable territory in eastern Turkey. The pressure included massing troops on the frontier. Britain therefore had to provide large-scale military aid to bolster the Turkish government. For a deeply indebted and impoverished Britain, with worldwide imperial commitments, these proved unsustainable burdens.