he Turkish Straits, the Russians backed down" (1998, p. 154).
Since 1944, Royalist and communist forces had been locked in civil war in Greece. In addition, Yugoslav and Bulgarian communists had been assisting the Greek communists. In February 1947, the British government handed the State Department a blue slip of paper announcing that in six weeks it would have to discontinue aid to Greece and Turkey. The Truman Doctrine, a program of American economic and military aid to those nations, was approved by the President and the Congress in the Spring of 1947. Other important programs followed, the Marshall Plan of economic aid to Western Europe of the summer of 1947, the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949 and the recognition of West Germany and the establishment of NATO in 1949; however, the Cold War was well under way by the spring of 1947.
Most observers in the West agree with Thomas that Stalin's actions provoked the initiation of the Cold War, but there are dissenters. La Feber argues that by insisting
...