The Truman Doctrine had been addressed primarily to the Russians, who understood it perfectly. It meant "Stop Shoving," and the shoving at least became a bit gentler in Greece, Turkey, France, Italy. But Europe, hungry and jittery, was inclined to think the U.S. was "getting tough." Even that notably un-jittery institution, the Vatican, felt a necessity to disassociate itself (TIME, June 23) from the strong U.S. line.
Two points, always implicit in the Truman Doctrine, had been somewhat overlooked in Europe: 1) the U.S. did not want war; 2) only a coordinated program of European reconstruction, with U.S. help,*...
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