As they saw it, all of the countries around Greece had fallen: Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania. Greece would be the place where the West would take its stand. The Americans’ “domino theory,” introduced to American students in lesson plans about Vietnam, originated with Greece, which was seen as the first piece to fall before knocking down Iran in one direction and Italy in the other. Greece would stay anti-Communist at any price. In 1947, Truman went to Congress and pleaded with them to pass the Truman Doctrine.
