9781422282823

“Containment” was an alternative to a new war, on the one hand, and not acting against Soviet expansion, on the other. It was a strategy to defendU.S. interests around the world and ultimately to promote a liberal-democratic international order. Even though the advocates of containment publicly sounded the alarm in making the case for it, they did not believe that military force was the only way to carry it out. Aside from funding made available for the Greek and Turkish governments, the first implementation of “containment” was the Marshall Plan, a large economic aid package for the countries of Western Europe. U.S. planners such as Kennan believed that when Europeans regained their faith in the viability of market economies and democratic politics, communism would lose most if not all of its appeal. In response to the Truman Doctrine, the Soviet government proclaimed its “two camps” theory: on one side the U.S.–led “imperialist” countries, preparing a new war, and on the other the Soviet Union–led peace-loving “anti-fascist” countries. If you were not with these “peace-loving forces,” you were an enemy. The Cold War was now formally on. The civil war in Greece was rooted in divisions created during the occupation of the country by Nazi Germany and Italy during World War II. Shown here are members of ELAS (Greek People’s Liberation Army), a communist-leaning guerilla group fighting against the occupation.

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GOVERNANCE AND THE QUEST FOR SECURITY