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FREEDOMWAYS      THIRD QUARTER 1973 

newly elected Congress (1946) seemed deeply committed to "saving Western civilization."

American policy makers, however, became concerned with saving capitalism, for at the close of the war there was an upsurge of the left throughout the world, notably in Eastern Europe and China. (Even within the United States, there was an outbreak of worker strikes, none directed against the capitalist system per se.) This upsurge has been attributed to the massive destruction and dislocation caused by the war. Preventing the spread of any left tendencies that would serve to undermine or overthrow capitalist ruled nations became the overriding concern of American policy makers. Thus, something had to be done to convince the public that Europe needed to be rescued. Rescued from what? Winston Churchill provided the answer when he delivered his "iron-curtain" speech in Missouri. It was now up to those in power to chart a course whereby the political ideology of anti-communism could be nourished and developed.

Clearly, the chief target of attack was the Soviet Union. Even here, nevertheless, the Truman administration had a problem to overcome. Cyrus L. Sulzberger described this problem in an article in the New York Times on March 21, 1946. He observed:

...the momentum of the pro-Soviet feeling worked up during the war to support the Grand Alliance had continued too heavily after the armistice. This made it difficult for the administration to carry out the stiffer diplomatic policy required now. For this reason, a campaign was worked up to obtain a better psychological balance of public opinion.5

This psychological balance came into play later that year when in September the then Secretary of Commerce, Henry Wallace, gave a speech urging the Truman administration to pursue a policy of cooperation with the Soviet Union; and further he expressed the view that the Soviet Union, indeed, did have a right to a sphere of political influence in eastern Europe. Ironically, Truman had given approval of this speech. But, with the prodding of Secretary of State, James F. Byrnes, Truman made an abrupt shift. A policy such as advocated by Wallace was now unacceptable to Truman. Shortly thereafter, he asked Wallace to resign.

Plans were now laid for formulating the famous Truman Doctrine, the containment policy aimed at preventing communist expansion. To control communism required the Truman policy makers to find a way to give economic assistance to Europe. Such assistance

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