Truman Doctrine

On March 12, 1947, President Harry Truman delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress in which he proposed the United States provide $400 million in economic aid to Greece and Turkey. The approach to foreign policy outlined in this speech would become known as the “Truman Doctrine” and became a defining feature of the US approach to the Cold War. Based on the view that the establishment of communism in a state would cause its spread to neighboring countries—or the Domino Theory—the Truman Doctrine held that America should provide support to struggling democracies to ensure that they remained self-sufficient and did not turn to the Soviet Union for support. The speech explores themes of The Necessity of US Global Leadership, The Role of Economic Assistance in Foreign Policy, and The Spread of Communism as a Threat to Democracy.

This study guide refers to the transcription of the speech found on the US National Archives site which can be accessed here. Citations in this guide refer to paragraph numbers.

Truman begins the address to Congress by stressing the direness of the international situation that directly concerns American national security. He specifies that the speech will focus on the issues facing Greece and Turkey.

Greece asked the United States for economic assistance, and Truman believes support is necessary for Greece’s survival as a democratic country. Greece is experiencing a total economic collapse; its own production has been destroyed by the 1940 Nazi occupation and cannot be restarted due to internal conflict. The country’s infrastructure and agriculture have been destroyed, people are starving, and 85% of the children have tuberculosis.

Truman then demonstrates why the US is the only country “willing and able” (14) to help the Greek crisis. Truman dismisses both Britain (Greece’s former benefactor) and the United Nations as replacements, the former being unable to afford aid and the latter unable to act with the required urgency. To solve the humanitarian crisis Truman has outlined, the US is the only option and therefore must act in order to ensure the future of democracy in Greece.

Truman then turns to a defense of the Greek government, emphasizing that the Greek parliament was chosen by an overwhelming majority of the voters in a free and fair election. He excuses the government’s persecution of leftists as “mistakes” made in an unstable environment. By relying on democratic principles, and if given the aid it needs to rebuild (under strict US supervision), he holds that Greece can become a flourishing democracy.

Following this appeal, Truman moves on to Turkey, which asked for US and British aid to modernize the country and ensure national integrity. Like Greece, Truman argues, Turkey’s integrity is vital to global security. As with Greece, the US is the only country in a position to supply Turkey with the aid it needs.  

Having discussed each individual crisis, Truman discusses the “broad implications” (27) of the US providing economic aid for Greece and Turkey. He states that a primary objective of US foreign policy is ensuring nations can exist free from coercion. This objective, he says, was a central reason for US involvement in the Second World War and must be maintained. Economic crises such as those occurring in Greece and Turkey leave nations vulnerable to having “totalitarian regimes forced upon them against their will,” as has recently occurred in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria (30).

In the post-war world, Truman claims “nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life” (31). Without explicitly naming the conflict between the US and the Soviet Union, he defines one way of life as based on the will of the majority and characterized by “free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression” (32). The other is its inverse: based on the will of the minority, imposed through terror, oppression, and violence.

Truman warns that Greece’s disappearance as an independent nation would likely cause danger to Turkey, and Turkey’s fall would lead to disorder across the Middle East. The loss of an independent and democratic Greece would threaten Europe as well. Truman emphasizes that what happens to Greece and Turkey will have ramifications far beyond their borders, and that the survival of these countries is crucial to the long-term survival of the emerging US-led, democratic order.

To conclude his speech Truman requests what he believes is needed to stop the Greece and Turkey’s crisis: $400 million dollars in aid, US personnel for the distribution and reconstruction efforts, and authorization of the rapid supply of these funds. Truman then gives a final reminder: “The free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms” (51), and it is a responsibility the US cannot and should not waver in.