The Truman Doctine - Harry S. Truman (1947)
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 present to you at this time for your consideration
and decision, concerns Greece and Turkey.
The United States has received from
the Greek Government an 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, peace loving country
has suffered invasion, four 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 all 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 circumstances 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, clothing, 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 be used effectively
in creating a stable 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 Communists, who
defy the government's authority at a number of points,
particularly along the northern boundaries. A Commission
appointed by the United Nations Security Council is
at present investigating 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 authority to the government throughout
Greek territory.
Greece must have assistance if it is
to become a self-supporting and self-respecting democracy.
The United States must supply this 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 commitments
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
not 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 additional
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 fundamental 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 ensure the peaceful development of
nations, free from coercion, the United States has
taken a leading 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 upon
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 United 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, guarantees
of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion,
and freedom from political oppression.
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.
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 hour, 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 raining 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 the 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
1/10 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 this 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.
