The Growth of American Power Through Cold and Hot Wars 305memory, were reluctant to spend money for other countries when the U.S.
had significant needs at home. So Truman played the fear card. One senator
told him he had to “scare hell out of” the American people, and there was no
better way to do that than to claim that Stalin and the Communists were
going to take over Greece, even though there was no evidence for that at all.
So, in March 1947, the president announced the Truman Doctrine, which said
that America would support “free peoples” [such as the brutal Greek leaders!]
who were under attack from “outside forces” [even though that was not the
case in Greece–the Russians were not backing the rebels]. Truman actually
said that, in Greece, “a few thousand terrorists led by communists” were try-
ing to take over the country. The Americans bought it and the Cold War was
expanding. The U.S. sent the Colonels fighter planes, napalm, small arms, and
patrol boats, and helped build bridges, docks, railroads, and communications
networks and sent advisors to train the Greek secret police. The Colonels,
now funded by the U.S. and facing rebels who had no outside support, went
on a spree, jailing and killing probably well over 100,000 rebels. In the name
of “democracy” and anti-Communism, the U.S. supported a terrible repression
against the Greek people.
“National Security” and Economic Hegemony
The Truman Doctrine, along with growing control in Germany and increased
weapons production, clearly signaled that the U.S. plans for postwar power
were going along as expected. But the American plans were truly global, and
Germany, Greece, Poland and Eastern Europe were a piece of the larger pro-
gram for hegemony. Perhaps America’s goals were best expressed by George
Kennan, who candidly said in a 1948 report, “We have about 50% of the
world’s wealth, but only 6.3% of its population. ... In this situation, we cannot
fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming
period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain
this position of disparity. ... To do so, we will have to dispense with all senti-
mentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated
everywhere on our immediate national objectives. ... We should cease to talk
about vague and ... unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the
living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are
going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then ham-