ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the role of President Truman in the formulation of US foreign policy at the beginning of the Cold War. It focuses on Truman's worldview and also explains the evolution of his worldview from childhood through the defining moments of his adult life and determines the impact this had on policy-making during his presidency. It is argued that Truman entered the White House without a predetermined view of international politics, but his beliefs about the nature of man, society, war and peace allowed him to formulate a conceptual scheme for directing US foreign policy during his presidency. The chapter outlines the development of the Truman Doctrine and the birth of the containment policy in response to the Greek and Turkey crises. The key issue to stress is that Truman had choices to make, nothing was preordained. The US could have returned to isolationism, or restricted itself to simply funding Greece and Turkey.
