Page 127 - NS-2 Textbook

120 MARITIME HISTORY

bility for strategic bombing and for combat operations in stantial economic aid to both Greece and Turkey. u.s.
support of land armies. The Na\')' retained its carrier avi- militalY bases were established in both countries, and
ation and its land-based reconnaissance wing, as well as they are still there today. U.S. Navy units were sent to the
the Marine Corps. 11,e Army kept its traditional roles. Mediterranean as a diplomatic show of force. Soviet ex-
Secretary Forrestal became the nation's first secretary of pansion tovvard the Mediterranean was thus checked.
defense. TIlis was the beginning of the permanent deploy-
Under the same act, the National Security Council, ment of the u.s. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea.
with permanent members including the president, vice Tnunan said that u.s. policy was "to support the cause of
president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense, be- freedom \vherever it -was threatened." Thus the Navy
came the nation's top national security policy body. The found itself projecting American foreign policy at the
National Security Act also provided for the creation of same tinle as it was struggling in the halls of Congress
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). for its velY existence.
In June 1947 Secretary of State George Marshall an-
nounced Tnunan's plan to provide economic aid for re-
THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE AND
construction of European cmmtries. This plan, formally
THE MARSHALL PLAN
named the European Recovery Program, became known
Several events that OCCUlTed during the months before as the Marshall Plan. Its purpose was to restore the
approval of the National Security Act made a significant economies of the war-ravaged countries in Europe and,
impact on the congressional decision to maintain a in the process, make it more difficult for the Soviets to
strong Navy-Marine Corps team with all of its compo- make more iruoads there. Although the Soviet Union
nent forces. The post-World War II Soviet moves into the was invited to participate, it refused to do so, and it pro-
Balkan and Baltic nations had gone unopposed, but hibited any of its new satellites from accepting the Amer-
when the Soviets tried to expand into Iran ,and the coun- ican assistance. The Soviet leaders denolulced the plan as
tries bordering the eastern Mediterranean, President American economic aggression. TI1US began an era of
Truman took steps as commander in chief that caused contention between the Western democracies headed by
Congress to become more aware of the danger. Strong the United States and the Commmrist bloc domillated by
pressure in the United Nations by the United States the USSR that would extend over much of the next forty-
caused the Soviets to back down and get out of northern five years. 11,e cold war had stal·ted in earnest.
Iran.
In 1946-47 George Kennan, a prominent American
THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY
diplomat stationed in Moscow, published his view that
ORGANIZATION (NATO)
"the main element of any United States policy toward the
Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but As American political and economic policy began to as-
firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansionist sert itself, several Soviet actions solidified Western deter-
tendencies." This policy of containment became the cor- millation. In 1948 the Communist party executed a sud-
nerstone of U.S. cold war foreign policy for the next four den coup d'etat in Czechoslovakia, seizing complete
decades. control of the country and causing the death of the Czech
In the spring of 1947 President Truman applied this president. Many Americans and Europeans now began
containment policy to counter Soviet moves toward to see how aggressive the forces of Soviet-backed com-
Greece and Turkey. In Greece, there had been civil war munism really \ivere.
since the closing days of World War II, with Communists The next incident was the Berlin Blockade in Jtme
supported by the Soviets seeking to overthrow the legit- 1948. The Soviets clamped a blockade on all materials en-
imate government that had returned to power there after tering or leaving the occupied city of Berlin by road, rail,
the war. The Soviets had been threatening Turkey since or canal. This action was an attempt to cut off the army
the war as well, because Stalin wanted access to the Dar- garrisons of the western Allies-Britain, France, and the
danelles, through which Soviet ships from Black Sea United States-in the city and starve West Berlin into ca-
ports had to transit to reach the Mediterranean. pitulation to the Soviets and their East German satellite.
In March 1947 in a speech before Congress, President 11,e Allies responded with a massive airborne supply op-
Truman enunciated the Truman Doctrine, thus formaliz- eration called the Berlin Airlift, which lasted eleven
ing the containment policy. Truman stated, "It must be months. During this time, over 2 million tons of supplies
the policy of the United States to support free peoples were flown into the city, one-fourth of it carried by Navy
who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed mi- planes.
norities or by outside pressures .... We must assist free In response to the growing Soviet menace, the
peoples to -work out their O\vn destinies in their uwn United States, Canada, and their West European allies
way." In support of the doctrine, Congress voted sub- agreed in 1949 to create the North Atlantic Treaty Orga-