Address to Congress (The Truman Doctrine)
Delivered to a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947, establishing that the U.S. would provide political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from authoritarian forces.
Full Transcript
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 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.
Defining Key Excerpts
"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."
"The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want."
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