ge Stalin to pay us a visit. 3. Settle the Korean question give the Koreans a government of their own. 4. Settle the Manchurian question .. . support Chang Kai-Shek for a strong China. 5. Agree to discussion of Russia's lend-lease debt to the U.S. 6. Agree to commercial air treaty. 7. Make it plain that we have no territorial ambitions. That we only want peace, but we'll fight for it! Truman also set several goals for questioned territories: The U.S. would go to war if provoked. The Danube, Trieste, Dardanelles, Kiel Canal, and Rhine-Danube waterway should by free to all nations. Manchuria should be Chinese, Dairen should be a free port. Russia should have Kuriles and Sakhalin . . . Germany should be occupied 'according to Yalta.' Austria should not be treated as an enemy country. After these announcements the British disclosed that they could no longer give aid to Turkey and Greece and that the U.S. must pick up the slack. This left Greece in extreme danger of toppling into Communist control. "If Greece fell . . . Turkey isolated in the Eastern Mediterranean, would eventually succumb . . ." Truman's plan for peacetime aid -- The Truman Doctrine -- was unprecedented in history (a sum of more than $400 million) and he faced a hostile Republican Congress through which to pass it. However, Truman informed the Congress of the troubles facing Italy, Germany and France. They and small, fragile Middle-eastern states faced direct threats from Communism. In retort, the Congress had problems with Truman's plan that included: The Greek government was corrupt and undemocratic; Turkey, too, was not a Democracy. Turkey had been neutral during the war. Further, the President's plan for aid gave no attention to Communism outside Europe. Nonetheless, two months later the bill passed on May 15, 1947. Truman added while signing the legislation into law: We are guardians of a great faith. We believe that fr...
