10 - U.S. policy in the Near East: the triumphs and tribulations of the Truman administration

Summary

U.S. policy in the Near East during the Truman administration was concerned primarily with the region's “Northern Tier” (Iran, Turkey, and Greece) and Palestine. Events in these two areas provided the context for several major policy decisions—the Truman Doctrine and U.S. support for the creation and establishment of Israel—that were among the best known and most controversial of the Truman years. In this essay I take a close look at these decisions, examine major questions that have been raised about the Truman administration's policies, and, in light of recent scholarship, attempt to assess them. Before such an assessment can be made, however, it is necessary to examine the geopolitical context within which the Truman administration was forced to operate.

When President Truman took office, World War II was not yet over but it already had radically altered the world power balance and shifted the loci of world power to Washington and Moscow. Within a year Stalin was exploring his options along the Soviet Union's southern borders and, it appeared, would continue to do so unless resisted. The British Empire, meanwhile, was disintegrating. By 1948, the British would be forced to withdraw their forces from Greece, Turkey, India, and Palestine. The combination of the rise of Soviet power and the demise of British influence presented the United States with new responsibilities and difficult choices.

In the nineteenth century the expanding Russian and British empires had played for high stakes.