n align = "justify"> like slicing salami .1946, observers in the west were becoming alarmed. George Kennan, an American embassy official in Moscow, sent a Long Telegram saying that the Soviets had to be stopped. On 5 March 1946, Winston Churchill gave a speech in Fulton in America in which he said that eastern Europe was cut off from the free world by an iron curtain , and was subject to Soviet influence. . . totalitarian control [and] police governments . The message was so clear that Stalin claimed that Churchill s speech was a declaration of war.tactics and the Fulton speechTruman Doctrine and the Marshall Planhad promised not to try to take over Greece, and he kept his word, but that did no stop Greek Communists trying to take over the government by force. A unit of British soldiers was stopping them, but in February 1947, the British informed Truman that they were pulling out. Truman acted. He sent American soldiers to Greece, and on 12 March 1947 he told Congress that it was America s duty to preserve freedom and democracy in Europe. The key basis to what became known as the Truman Doctrine was containment - the decision to stop any further expansion of communism.June 1947, the American General George Marshall went to Europe to see what was needed to stop the expansion of Communism. He returned with the impression that people were was so poor that all Europe was about to turn Communist. Rather than a military option to stop Russia, Marshall recommended an injection of $ 17 billion cash for aid, and to get the European economy going again. Prosperous, free people, he argued, would not turn Communist. At first, Congress hesitated to agree to send the money, but then - in February 1948 - Czechoslovakia turned Communist. The Czech Prime Minister, Masaryk, mysteriously fell out of a window and hard-line Stalinists took over. In March 1948, Congress voted Marshall Aid to Europe.the west, the Cold War is often represented as America moving to defend freedom against Stalin s aggression. This is only partly true, and you will need to understand that Russian historians saw things very differently. Stalin did want a buffer of states around Russia, but this had been tacitly agreed at Yalta, and it was Truman, at Potsdam , who adopted a new aggressive stance against Stalin. Russia did not send her army once into ANY eastern European state to turn it Communist - they all turned Commun...
