ABSTRACT
The term ‘Cold War’ was popularised by the US columnist WalterLippmann and entered general usage in 1947. The Truman doctrine,proclaimed in March 1947, underlined US willingness to help counter the communist threat in Greece and Turkey, but in reality, it was a general commitment to come to the aid of states facing a communist takeover. Its economic arm, the Marshall Plan, announced in June 1947, was to provide aid and thereby to revive the flagging market economies of Europe. Economic prosperity was perceived as the most effective antidote to the attractiveness of communism.
