✦ History

Truman Doctrine

March 12, 1947

US policy announced by Harry Truman to support free peoples against communist pressure, starting with aid to Greece and Turkey; it marked the start of containment in the Cold War.

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Battles and events 1

March 12, 1947 – December 26, 1991
Cold War Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Mao Zedong

Key commanders

Western Bloc 9

Dwight D. Eisenhower President, United States John F. Kennedy President, United States Harry S. Truman President, Truman Doctrine and containment Lyndon B. Johnson President Richard Nixon President, Détente; opening to China Gerald Ford President Ronald Reagan President George H. W. Bush President, In office as the Cold War ended Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister, United Kingdom

Eastern Bloc 5

Mao Zedong Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Mikhail Gorbachev General Secretary of the CPSU, Reforms and the end of the Cold War Joseph Stalin General Secretary of Communist Party, Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev General Secretary of Communist Party, Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev General Secretary of the CPSU