On September 27, King George II returned to Greece and failed to get Tsaldaris to expand his government by introducing liberal ministers. Government authority over Greece's northern provinces was crumbling, and sporadic fighting had once again brought the country to the brink of civil war.
In August 1946, the political bureau of the K.K.E. ordered Markos Vafiadhis, who had commanded the units of the E.L.A.S. in northeastern Greece throughout the war, to join the maquis and again organize guerrilla units there. During the same month, the Greek army was called upon to replace the gendarmerie in the fight against the communist partisans.
During the following winter, these launched attacks against remote villages and were particularly active in the North, where the communist neighbors of Greece:Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. not only provided them with weapons. ammunition and other supplies, but also camps near the border where they could train and rest. In December the Security Council of the U.N. decided to send a commission of inquiry to Greece following the complaint made by the Greek government about the aid provided to the partisans. The commission was to conclude in its report on the merits of this complaint:the Soviet and Polish representatives opposed their veto to this conclusion.
The situation in Greece was the subject of debates at the United Nations three times in 1946 and this country very quickly appeared as one of the theaters where the “cold war” which was beginning to develop would be waged. The Soviet Union managed to avoid direct involvement, the communist Balkan states did the work for them. However. already at this phase of the Cold War .. the Soviet government was beginning to harbor fears about the direction of President Tito's foreign policy and the exaggerated ardor he showed in supporting the Greek insurgents aroused his suspicions.
On February 24, 1947, the British government, worried about the economic crisis which followed the end of the war, realized that it could no longer provide such significant assistance to Greece:consequently. he warned the United States government that he would withdraw his 40,000 men stationed in Greece by the end of March. The State Department now viewed the Soviet threat quite differently than in 1944, when it had viewed Britain's intervention in Greece with hostility. Already, in January 1947, President Truman had sent an economic mission to Greece in order to study the problems posed by reconstruction there, and now the United States was being asked to assume the heavy task of preventing a Communist seizure of the country. On March 11, the president responded with the famous address to Congress that later became known as the "Truman Doctrine."