Truman doctrine

The Truman doctrine emerged from President Harry S. Truman's March 12, 1947, speech before a joint session of Congress in which he "promised help to any country fighting a Communist takeover. The policy became known as Containment of Communism."[1]

Background

President Truman had "declared an end to the period of World War II hostilities" on December 31, 1946.[2] "On Friday, February 21, 1947, the British Embassy informed the U.S. State Department officials that Great Britain could no longer provide financial aid to the governments of Greece and Turkey. American policymakers had been monitoring Greece's crumbling economic and political conditions, especially the rise of the Communist-led insurgency known as the National Liberation Front, or the EAM/ELAS. The United States had also been following events in Turkey, where a weak government faced Soviet pressure to share control of the strategic Dardanelle Straits. When Britain announced that it would withdraw aid to Greece and Turkey, the responsibility was passed on to the United States."[3]

Truman's March 12, 1947, "speech also included a request that Congress agree to give military and economic aid to Greece in its fight against communism. Truman asked for $400,000,000 for this aid programme. He also explained that he intended to send American military and economic advisers to countries whose political stability was threatened by communism." The policy "would guide U.S. diplomacy for the next 40 years."[4][5]

Also see Wikipedia: Truman Doctrine.

Related SourceWatch Resources

• Bush administration
• Bush doctrine
• Clinton administration
• Containment
• Eisenhower doctrine
• National Security State
• NSC-68
• Reagan administration
• Reagan doctrine

External links

• Avalon Project: Truman Doctrine: "President Harry S. Truman's Address Before a Joint Session of Congress, March 12, 1947, Yale University.
• Harry Truman and the Truman Doctrine, Truman Presidential Museum & Library.
• The Truman Doctrine of Aid to Greece. A Fifty-Year Retrospective, Edited by Eugene T. Rossides with an introduction by Prof. Demetrios James Caraley, American Hellenic Institute. Web site provides overview of chapters and ordering information.
• The Reader's Companion to American History: Truman Doctrine, Houghton Mifflin.