LAD #36 Truman Doctrine

Truman begins by addressing the Congress with his belief that the national security is threatened, this also is regarding Greece and Turkey. The Greek government sent an appeal to the US for economic assistance. Though peaceful, they had been ravaged by WWII and for a time a militant minority took power, but now they find themselves barely able to sustain themselves and require help to reconstruct. They are also currently being threatened by communist terrorists which they cannot fight against. Truman believed the United States must be the one to supply the assistance Greece so clearly needs.Truman also believed that a primary foreign policy of the United States is to create a world free of coercion, which is what WWII had been fought and the United Nations formed for. However, he states, many nations had recently had totalitarian regimes forced upon them.