The Truman Doctrine Explained | Primary Source Close Reads Explained

0:04 Words matter, especially in history. When historians seek to define eras or periods, we use phrases that support our understanding of events. The Jacksonian period, for example, alludes to the political influence of Andrew Jackson in his policies. Reconstruction points to the reconfiguration of government and political forces after the Civil War. The Cold War is another such name.

0:27 It refers to the tensions which existed between the United States and a union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR or Soviets, for sure. This period, roughly between the end of World War II and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was one of uncertainty in constant political maneuvering. The name itself is a contradiction in terms. A hot war, as it’s called,

0:48 is a war that has broken out, where two nations are directly competing on the battlefield in conventional fight for supremacy. A Cold war is really a war that hasn’t started or said another way, a war that neither combatant wants to directly acknowledge. The terms of this conflict are often clearer in hindsight than they are while it’s unfolding. When the Cold War actually started is

1:10 debated by historians. We say after World War II because even in the final days of the conflict, there were tensions between the United States and its allies in the Soviet Union. As the years progressed, after the end of the war, things began to sort of form up, and it began to be more clear that these tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States were representing

1:30 a new, if not open, conflict than tension that was existing on the world stage. One of the first times that this really became defined was after Harry S. Truman, President Truman’s speech to the United States Congress on March 12, 1947. In this speech, Truman outlined what would later become known as the Truman Doctrine. It set in motion a policy by the United States of providing military

1:54 and economic aid to countries who were threatened by communism. And who is the biggest proponent of that communist system? You guessed it. The USSR. It’s important to remember that this policy was a radical departure from the historic state of the United States. Even up to the Second World War, the United States usually sought to maintain neutrality on a global stage. Truman’s plan was anything but neutral.

2:16 Let’s take a look at Truman’s speech and see if we can see how he worked to convince Congress and the American people that this larger role of the United States on the world stage was needed. So, as we look at President Truman’s speech, let’s see if we can answer these four questions who does President Truman believe needs the United States’ immediate support? How does Truman present the choice the world must make?

2:38 What kind of aid does he propose? And what is the argument he makes to the American people? President Truman gave this speech in March of 1947 in response to communist advances in both Greece and Turkey. He saw this as an immediate national security that needed to be addressed. And so he gave this speech and he starts out, the gravity of the situation which confronts the world today

3:01 necessitates my appearance before a joint session of Congress. So it’s a joint session. So already, if we’re just reading this document for the first time, we don’t really know our context. If it’s a joint session, this is a big deal. He’s called together both the House of Representatives and the Senate and he’s giving an address. The foreign policy and the national security of this country are involved. One aspect of the present situation which I wish to present to you at this

3:24 time for your consideration and decision concerns Greece and Turkey. Now, as always, it’s important to keep in mind when I go through these documents, this is only a portion of the entire speech. If you want a link to the rest of the speech, it will be found in the description down below. So President Truman continues, I do not believe that the American people in the Congress wish to turn a deaf ear to the appeal of the Greek government.

3:45 So what he’s saying is we need to pay attention to the Greek government. They’re in desperate need of our support and we can’t pretend like it’s not happening. The very existence of the Greek state today is threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by communists, who defy the government’s authority at a number of points, particularly along the northern border boundaries.

4:08 All right, so again, he’s making this case that it’s the very existence of the Greek state. So he’s making this case that this is urgent, we have to act. Now, the British government, which has been helping Greece, can give no further financial or economic aid after March 31. Great Britain finds itself under the necessity of reducing or liquidating its commitments in several parts of the world.

4:29 All right, what’s going on here? Well, now, it’s important to remember our historical context. So why do we need to be involved in this immediate thing? Well, he points to the British government. Why British government? Well our historical context is really important. It’s 1947. What do we know about the world? 1947, that’s two years after the end of World War II, which occurred in 1945.

4:50 The British government had taken immense losses because of that war, both financially and around the world. Its global empire was in the process of changing into something else. So the British now are sort of reducing the amount of aid they can provide to these countries. And Truman here is saying, Look, Britain can no longer do this.

5:10 It’s time for the United States to stand up and help these different parts of the world and to provide them with the aid that Britain was providing. So you might ask yourself, could the United Nations have gotten involved? Well, German goes there next. We have considered how the United Nations might assist in this crisis, but the situation is urgent and requires immediate action.

5:30 So as he’s saying, it’d be great to have the United Nations be involved here, but we have to move quickly. This isn’t something we can delay. We have to move. And that was, if you remember back to the previous two paragraphs he’s hitting home this urgency over and over again. He says one of the primary objectives of the foreign policy of the United States is the creation of conditions in which we and other countries will be able to work out a way of life free from coercion.

5:55 That phrase is really important. Free from coercion. He’s alluding to government that is made by choice by the people of that country. And if we think back to our history of foreign relations in the United States, you might be thinking right now about Woodrow Wilson and sort of the Wilsonian position of the 14 points and this idea of independent self determination.

6:17 All of that is what he’s channeling here. This idea that countries should be free to choose the form of government that they want. And he’s implying that these communist rebels are not allowing that to happen. And he’s going to talk a lot more about that in the next few paragraphs. He goes on to say this was a fundamental issue in the war. Remember in the war, he’s talking about World War II.

6:39 They had just concluded it. So now he’s connecting this struggle to the war that they had just fought. He’s making this connection between what the United States have just been through and what it’s about to go through now. He says the war with Germany and Japan, our victory was won over countries which sought to impose their will and their way of life upon other nations.

6:59 Germany had invaded Poland. That had started Second World War. Of course the United States didn’t get involved until 1941 when Germany declared war on the United States and of course Japan had been invading both Korea and China and across the Pacific and attacked the United States in 1941 he’s talking about all of those issues as being these countries imposing their

7:20 will on other countries and saying look, we just fought a war for this. We can’t allow this to happen in Greece and Turkey. So he goes on to say at the present moment in world history, every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon the will of the majority and is distinguished by free institutions,

7:42 representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. What he’s talking about here is a democratic, small, d democratic kind of government where the people are sovereign or in other words, the people have the power to choose what kind of government they are going to have. And they have the rights of freedom of speech, freedom of religion protected

8:06 that allow them to both challenge that government and to continue to believe whatever they want to believe without being prosecuted. Then he lays out the alternative. The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections and the suppression of personal freedoms.

8:29 So there he’s alluding to what he sees the communist governments as being as this minority that imposes a particular system of government on a country and forces it to comply with that system regardless of whether or not the people that want it. And here what he’s doing is he’s setting up a binary. He’s putting this democratic kind of government against this communist government.

8:52 And that is sort of the emerging tensions that are going to fuel the Cold War up until 1991. It’s this choice between a free government, free choices, protected press, protected speech, protected ideas or this forced coercive style of government. Then he concludes I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting

9:15 attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political process.

9:36 So two things to note here. This I believe, statement is really powerful. Truman is saying this is what he believes as President of the United States, as leader of a free country and a free government that this is what needs to happen. But he also says what we ought to do. And that was one of our questions. What kind of aid does he support? Economic and financial aid.

9:56 So let’s look at those questions again. Who does President Truman believe needs the United States immediate support? Greece and Turkey. And he makes a very strong case that need is urgent, that it needs to happen absolutely right now. It cannot delay what the Truman present as the choice. Well, that was that choice between the free governments and the coercive government.

10:16 One is through choice and elections and protection of rights. The other is through a coercive minority that seeks to take over the country and forcibly impose a system upon the people of that country. What kind of aid is he support? That’s the financial and military aid. So everything from economic support to actual military support, either weapons or troops in some cases as would take place later in the Cold War.

10:42 So finally, what is the argument he’s making to the American people? Well, I think there’s a lot of different ways you can sort of look at it and interpret and talk about it. But in my mind he’s trying to show that the United States now has a place after World War II on the world stage of defending this free government from threats around the world. Really, that becomes the encroachment of communism around the world.

11:02 And that’s what begins to position the United States as this sort of challenger to growing Soviet influence around the globe. And it’s that tension that becomes both what’s called the Truman Doctrine, but as that grows and as that evolves over time, that’s what we see as the Cold War. It’s that tension between the United States seeking to support countries who are resistant to communism

11:26 and do what we can to ensure that free government is promoted wherever it can be. So I hope now you know a little bit more about Truman’s speech from March of 1947 and also about the Truman Doctrine. Stay tuned to our channel. We’re always producing new content and we hope that you’ll check it out and learn something and come back and see us soon. Thanks so much. Oh no, the video is over.

11:48 Oh, come on, don’t be so sad. Don’t you know that the Bill of Rights Institute has tons of videos on American history, government and civics? From primary source document breakdowns to historical image analysis, whether you’re studying for a test or just interested in learning more, they’ve got something for you. Well, in that case, I better check out this video.

12:08 And don’t forget to subscribe so you aren’t so sad again.