Oil of the Middle East

Archive Report

Truman Doctrine and the Question of Oil

Greek Aid Program and Security of Oil Reserves

President Truman's program to extend American assistance to Greece and Turkey has stimulated discussion of the interest of the United States in the vast petroleum resources of the Middle East. Critics of the President's proposals were quick to detect “the smell of oil” and to charge that the program was intended primarily to protect rich oil concessions held by American and British corporations and only secondarily to help free peoples resist Soviet pressure.

Some of the supporters of the Greek-Turkish program readily conceded that it would enhance the security of Middle East oil reserves. But they cited that fact as an additional reason for approving the program. In the House of Representatives, ...

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