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The Southern Flank of NATO: A Wing in Disarray
| Article
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12942 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1987 |
3,618 Words |
| Author
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Nikolaos A. Stavrou
Nikolaos A. Stavrou is professor of international affairs at
Howard University. |
On March 12, 1947, President Harry S Truman delivered a short speck before a joint session of Congress that altered the course of history and firmly established the United States as a superpower and defender of democratic ideals. Historians recorded that speech as "the Truman Doctrine," whose 40th anniversary is barely mentioned, let alone celebrated this year. Regardless of efforts by modern-day revisionists to belittle Truman's vision, the fact remains that what he set in motion in 1947 saved Europe from economic bankruptcy and checked the Kremlin's expansionism.
Greece and Turkey were test cases of a broader policy. The president asked for an immediate sum of $400 million to help these two countries resist ruthless Soviet efforts to convert them into satellites. In the case of Greece, an insurrection supported by three Soviet satellites, Albania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria, was in full swing. There was little doubt in the minds of Greek and Turkish politicians at the time that without American assistance the chances for survival of democratic pluralism were bleak indeed.
With massive material assistance, supported by a broad domestic consensus, Greece and Turkey successfully frustrated Soviet attempts to impose the rule of tyranny over them. In 1952, both countries requested membership in the NATO alliance, an organization that gave meaning to Truman's promise to "support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressure." Yet, 40 years and many billions of dollars later, neither Greece nor Turkey can be considered staunch or grateful allies committed to safeguarding "the freedom, common heritage, and civilization" of its members, as the charter of NATO proclaims, from totalitarian
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