Truman Speech Presented To Joint Session Of Congress
March 12, 1947
Truman Doctrine
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Congress of the United States:
The gravity of the situation which confronts the world today necessitates
my appearance before a joint session of the Congress.
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 time for your consideration and decision, concerns Greece and Turkey.
The United States has received from the Greek Government and urgent
appeal for financial and economic assistance. Preliminary reports
from the American Economic Mission now in Greece and reports from the American
Ambassador in Greece corroborate the statement of the Greek Government
that assistance is imperative if Greece is to survive as a free nation.
I do not believe that the American people and the Congress wish to turn
a deaf ear to the appeal of the Greek Government.
Greece is not a rich country. Lack of sufficient natural resources has
always forced the Greek people to work hard to make both ends meet.
Since 1940, this industrious and peace-loving country has suffered invasion,
4 years of cruel enemy occupation, and bitter internal strife.
When forces of liberation entered Greece they found that the retreating
Germans had destroyed virtually all the railways, roads, port facilities,
communications, and merchant marine. More than a thousand villages had
been burned. Eighty-five percent of the children were tubercular
Livestock, poultry, and draft animals had almost disappeared. Inflation
had wiped out practically ail savings.
As a result of these tragic conditions, a militant minority, exploiting
human want and misery, was able to create political chaos which, until
now, has made economic recovery impossible.
Greece is today without funds to finance the importation of those goods
which are essential to bare subsistence. Under these circum-stances the
people of Greece cannot make progress in solving their problems of reconstruction.
Greece is in desperate need of financial and economic assistance to enable
it to resume purchases of food, clothing1 fuel, and seeds. These are indispensable
for the subsistence of its people and are obtainable only from abroad.
Greece must have help to import the goods necessary to restore internal
order and security so essential for economic and political recovery.
The Greek Government has also asked for the assistance of experienced
American administrators, economists, and technicians to insure that the
financial and other aid given to Greece shall he used effectively in creating
a stab1e and self-sustaining economy and in improving its public administration.
The very existence of the Greek State is today threatened by the
terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by Com-munists,
who defy the Governments authority at a number of points, particularly
along the northern boundaries. A Commission ap-pointed by the United Nations
Security Council is at present investi-gating disturbed conditions in northern
Greece, and alleged border violations along the frontier between Greece
on the one hand and Albania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia on the other.
Meanwhile, the Greek Government is unable to cope with the situation.
The Greek Army is small and poorly equipped. It needs supplies and equipment
if it is to restore the authority of the Govern-ment throughout Greek territory.
Greece must have assistance if it is to become a self-supporting and
self-respecting democracy.
The United States must supply that assistance. We have already
extended to Greece certain types of relief and economic aid, but these
are inadequate.
There is no other country to which democratic Greece can turn.
No other nation is willing and able to provide the necessary support
for a democratic Greek Government.
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 commit-ments in several parts
of the world, including Greece.
We have considered how the United Nations might assist in this crisis.
But the situation is an urgent one requiring immediate action, and the
United Nations and its related organizations are not in a position to extend
help of the kind that is required.
It is important to note that the Greek Government has asked for our
aid in utilizing effectively the financial and other assistance we may
give to Greece, and in improving its public administration. It is of the
utmost importance that we supervise the use of any funds made available
to Greece, in such a manner that each dollar spent will count toward making
Greece self-supporting, and will help to build an economy in which a healthy
democracy can flourish.
No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy,
however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes
can be pointed out and corrected. The government of Greece is not perfect.
Nevertheless it represents 85 percent of the members of the Greek Parliament
who were chosen in an election last year. Foreign observers, including
692 Americans, considered this election to be a fair expression of the
views of the Greek people.
The Greek Government has been operating in an atmosphere of chaos and
extremism. It has made mistakes. The extension of aid by this
country does hot mean that the United States condones everything that the
Greek Government has done or will do. We have condemned in the past, and
we condemn now, extremist measures of the right or the left. We have in
the past advised tolerance, and we advise tolerance now.
Greece's neighbor, Turkey, also deserves our attention.
The future of Turkey as an independent and economically sound state
is clearly no less important to the freedom-loving peoples of the world
than the future of Greece. The circumstances in which Turkey finds itself
today are considerably different from those of Greece. Turkey has been
spared the disasters that have beset Greece; and, during the war, the United
States and Great Britain furnished Turkey with material aid. Nevertheless,
Turkey now needs our support.
Since the war Turkey has sought financial assistance from Great Britain
and the United States for the purpose of effecting that modernization necessary
for the maintenance of its national integrity.
That integrity is essential to the preservation of order in the Middle
East.
The British Government has informed us that, owing to its own difficulties,
it can no longer extend financial or economic aid to Turkey.
As in the case of Greece, if Turkey is to have the assistance it needs,
the United States must supply it. We are the only country able to provide
that help.
I am fully aware of the broad implications, involved if the United States
extends assistance to Greece and Turkey, and I shall discuss these implications
with you at this time.
One of the primary objectives of the foreign policy of the United States,
is the creation of conditions in which we and other nations will be able
to work out a way of life free from coercion. This was a funda-mental issue
in 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.
To insure the peaceful development of nations, free from coercion, the
United States has taken a 1eading part in establishing the United Nations.
The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence
for all its members. We shall not realize our objectives, however,
unless we are willing to help free peoples to maintain their free institutions
and their national integrity against aggressive movements that seek to
impose upon them totalitarian regimes. This is no more than a frank
recognition that totalitarian regimes imposed on free peoples, by direct
or indirect aggression, undermine the foundations of international peace
and hence the security of the United States.
The peoples of a number of countries of the world have recently had
totalitarian regimes forced upon them against their will. The Government
of the Untied States has made frequent protests against coercion and intimidation,
in violation of the Yalta agreement, in Poland, Rumania, and Bulgaria.
I must also state that in a number of other countries there have been similar
developments.
At the present moment in world history nearly 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, representative government, free elections, guaranties
of individual liberty, freedom, of speech and religion, and freedom from
political oppression.
The second way of life is base 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.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support
free peoples who are resisting 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 processes.
The world is not static, and the status quo is not sacred. But
we cannot allow changes in the status quo in violation of the Charter of
the United Nations by such methods as coercion, or by such subterfuges
as political infiltration. In helping free and independent nations
to maintain their freedom, the United States will be giving effect to the
principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
It is necessary only to glance at a map to realize that the survival
and integrity of the Greek nation are of grave importance in a much wider
situation. If Greece should fall under the control of an armed minority,
the effect upon its neighbor, Turkey, would be immediate and serious.
Confusion and disorder might well spread throughout the entire Middle East.
Moreover, the disappearance of Greece as an independent state would
have a profound effect upon those countries in Europe whose peoples are
struggling against great difficulties to maintain their freedoms and their
independence while they repair the damages of war.
It would be an unspeakable tragedy if these countries, which have struggled
so long against overwhelming odds, should lose that victory for which they
sacrificed so much. Collapse of free institutions and loss of independence
would be disastrous not only for them but for the world. Discouragement
and possibly failure would quickly be the lot of neighboring peoples striving
to maintain their freedom and independence.
Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hous, the effect
will be far reaching to the West as well as to the East.
We must take immediate and resolute action.
I, therefore, ask the Congress to provide authority for assistance to
Greece and Turkey in the amount of $400,000,000 for the period ending June
30, 1948. In requesting these funds, I have taken into consideration
the maximum amount of relief assistance which would be furnished to Greece
out of the $350,000,000 which I recently requested that the Congress authorize
for the prevention of starvation and suffering in countries devastated
by the war.
In addition to funds, I ask the Congress to authorize the detail of
American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey, at the request
of those countries, to assist in the tasks of reconstruction and for the
purpose of supervising the use of such financial and material assistance
as may be furnished. I recommend that authority also be provided
for the instruction and training of selected Greek and Turkish personnel.
Finally, I ask that the Congress provide authority which will permit
the speediest and most effective use, in terms of needed commodities, supplies,
and equipment, of such funds as may be authorized.
If further funds, or further authority, should be needed for purposes
indicated in this message, I shall not hesitate to bring the situation
before the Congress. On this subject the executive and legislative branches
of the Government must work together.
This is a serious course upon which we embark.
I would not recommend it except that the alternative is much more serious.
The United States contributed $341,000,000,000 toward winning World
War II. This is an investment in world freedom and world peace.
The assistance that I am recommending for Greece and Turkey amounts
to little more than one-tenth of 1 percent of this investment. It
is only common sense that we should safeguard this investment and make
sure that it was not in vain.
The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They
spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach
their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died.
We must keep that hope alive.
The free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining
their freedoms.
If we falter in our leadership, we may endanger the peace of the world
– and we shall surely endanger the welfare of our own Nation.
Great responsibilities have been placed upon us by the swift movement
of events.
I am confident that the Congress will face these responsibilities squarely.
Harry S. Truman
