The Role of Greece anf Turkey in the U.S. Strategy of Containment, 1945-1953

Among the states, the history of which was affected by the Cold War can undoubtedly be ranked both Greece and Turkey. Their geostrategic singularity, accentuated by the outcomes of the World War II, caused that the "struggle" between the United States and the Soviet Union for influence in those countries had considerably contributed to a shift in the course of U.S. foreign policy towards the Soviet Union and to adopting an entirely new strategic concept which was to be called as the "strategy of containment". A number of quality books have already been dealing with the general characteristics of this strategy; however, historians have not turned enough attention - which is rather surprising - to its implementation in particular countries and territories. Therefore, an analysis of particular impacts of the strategy of containment on Greece and Turkey, as well as an evaluation of how successfully this approach of the United States towards both the countries worked, have become primary aims of my dissertation. The U.S. strategy of containment, which can be regarded as an example of the so called "grand strategy", had become a key factor of the U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. The process of its coming into existence was complicated and cannot be marked off by one document or an event; its..