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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the Truman Doctrine,

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the 12-step program to help liars get their facts straight.

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All right, check out this excerpt.

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[ mumbles ] Truman Doctrine.

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All right, and the question:

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What was the underlying goal of the Truman Doctrine?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right, well, at the end of World War II, all

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President Truman wanted was to take a good, long nap.

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But the messy aftermath of Europe forced Harry T. to change his plans.

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Let's see how the Truman Doctrine attempted to restore

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order to the new global disorder.

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Was the underlying goal of the Truman Doctrine

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A - to help war-torn countries repair their infrastructure?

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Well, that sounds more like the Marshall Plan, which

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granted aid to European countries to rebuild their

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war-torn regions and stabilize their economies. So it's not A.

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Could the Truman Doctrine have intended C -

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to improve the reputation of the U.S. on the world stage?

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Well, following World War II, the U.S. was feeling pretty powerful,

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both politically and economically.

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So they weren't super concerned about their reputation at the time.

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So that's a blow for C and D, good-bye.

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Which means that the Truman Doctrine's main goal was B -

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to provide financial aid to non-Communist countries.

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Truman really didn't want communism to spread

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from Russia to neighboring Eastern Europe.

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He issued his doctrine, which committed the U.S.

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to giving countries financial aid

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so long as they resisted communist influence.

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So B is the correct answer.

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After spending all that money, the U.S. really hoped

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their investments wouldn't end up in the red.

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[ bell dings ]

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