“The art of manipulation”: British foreign policy in Greece and the declaration of the Truman doctrine: October 1944 to March 1947.

From 1940 to 1945, Churchill's foreign policy in South-Eastern Europe was geared towards maintaining Greece in the British sphere of influence. Even after the election of a Labour government in the summer of 1945, for the next year and a half the Albion's policy focussed on the preservation of British influence in the tip of the Balkan Peninsula. However, in what appeared to be a major reversal of policy in February of 1947, the British informed the United States that they could do no more in Greece, and in so doing manipulated the Americans into assuming support for their interests through the declaration and implementation of the Truman doctrine. This Thesis offers a new interpretation of Britain's role in the origins of the Cold War through its invovement in Greece, and the role that it played in the American's assuption support for British strategic interests.