ABSTRACT
Because it was on the Continent's southern flank, in Greece, Turkey and Italy, that political and strategic situations were most compromised, it was here that the Americans were first forced by their local allies to follow through in military and economic terms the logic of the Truman Doctrine and the concept of containment. In the course of 1948 it became clear that the commitments established in stages in Greece, Turkey and Italy since 1944 made it essential to reinforce the strategic unity and internal stability of the entire region. 1 Only in this way could the Mediterranean as a whole become an effective link in the projected American global security system. Only with this approach could the Soviets be prevented from moving out of the Black Sea and towards the Middle East and North Africa, and the economic recovery of all of Europe west and south of the Iron Curtain be guaranteed. 2
