'A special kind of businessman': W. Averell Harriman, Paul G. Hoffman, Philip D. Reed and the business of President Truman's foreign policy (Harry S. Truman)

This dissertation explores the involvement of three business leaders with President Truman's foreign policy. It focuses on the Truman administration's efforts to work with men tied to big business to tap into already-existing support for corporation capitalism and American-style democracy to promote Truman's foreign policies. These policies involved considerable direct involvement and expenditure of government money in European affairs in peacetime, which seemed a sharp break from prior policies. In reality, however, Truman was merely following his predecessors' promotion of corporation capitalism and American interests in Europe in the changing circumstances which developed out of World War II.; This dissertation begins with a consideration of developments in American government-business relations and foreign policy issues between 1917 and 1947. It then explores food conservation as a means of educating the American people about the importance of Europe to American security and prosperity, and the transformation of Germany from wartime antagonist to suitable democratic ally. The Marshall Plan is considered, first in connection with its promotion by the administration and business supporters and then in connection with issues that arose while Hoffman was Plan administrator and Harriman was his chief diplomat. The focus then shifts to Harriman in his role as a diplomat, considering his 1951 efforts to mediate the Anglo-Iranian oil dispute and his visit to Yugoslavia in which he became the highest ranking American to visit Tito since the split between Belgrade and Moscow. Lastly, this dissertation considers Harriman's role as one of the “Big Three” diplomats as the US, UK and France sought to lead planning for a NATO arms buildup that would transform the alliance from a theoretical entity into a credible defensive organization without damaging the still-recovering economies of Western European nations, or alienating other alliance members.