United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is portrayed as both a country battered by postwar hardship and a former European power no longer able to sustain its overseas commitments. In February 1947, its decision to end support for Greece and Turkey placed immediate pressure on the United States and helped turn a regional emergency into a test of American postwar policy.

A country under winter strain

The book describes the winter of 1946–47 as exceptionally severe across Europe, but the United Kingdom was hit especially hard. Snowdrifts blocked roads and railways, closed factories, schools, and coal mines, and left small towns isolated. A bus on a main coastal road was trapped in a ten-foot drift; the snowplow sent to free it became buried as well. To conserve power, offices in London were lit by candles, while the continuing storms deepened the country’s difficulties in supplying fuel and keeping transport moving.

The hardship had direct political consequences. An economic White Paper issued by the United Kingdom’s government in January described the country’s position as extremely serious. Its weakened finances made cuts to the armed forces and overseas responsibilities increasingly unavoidable. The crisis was therefore not simply a matter of weather: economic pressure was narrowing the government’s capacity to act abroad.

Withdrawal from Greece and Turkey

On February 21, 1947, the United Kingdom formally notified the United States that it could no longer afford to provide economic and military assistance to Greece and Turkey. The government of Clement Attlee planned to withdraw 40,000 troops from Greece and end all economic aid there on March 31, leaving the United States to decide whether to take on the responsibility. The announcement confirmed warnings that had been reaching Washington for weeks, but its formal timing made the change especially urgent.

The consequences were most immediate in Greece, where United Kingdom troops and financial support had helped sustain the royalist government during its civil war with Communist guerrillas. Turkey, too, was understood to need firm, long-term backing if it was to remain independent. The United Kingdom’s retreat from these commitments thus exposed how much responsibility for maintaining the balance in the region might fall to the United States.

A turning point in American policy

After receiving the notice, Truman asked Dean Acheson for a report by the following Monday. Acheson and other officials worked through the weekend; then the secretary of state and Acheson urged immediate aid, especially for Greece. The amount required for Greece alone for the remainder of 1947 was estimated at a quarter of a billion dollars, and Truman agreed that substantial assistance could not wait.

The book presents the United Kingdom’s withdrawal as more than a request to replace one stream of aid. With the crisis in Greece and Turkey, Washington faced a broader question about its role in a Europe weakened by war and winter, and about the consequences of leaving the region exposed to Soviet influence. The United Kingdom’s reduced capacity became the pressure point that pushed Truman’s administration toward a more active international commitment.