Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine speech outlines President Harry Truman's approach to foreign policy in the early years of the Cold War. The speech was delivered to a country still recovering from the recent Second World War and finding itself increasingly at odds with the USSR. Truman’s foreign policy advice was intended to present a new modus operandi for the US within this environment. The speech had a dual audience: Directly, Truman was proposing to the joint chambers of Congress that they needed to provide $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey; indirectly, he aimed to convince the American people of the need to assume a new role in geopolitics, and why tensions would grow with Russia, which had been a wartime ally just two years before.

To achieve this purpose Truman employs Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle (logos, ethos, and pathos), repetition, antithesis, and notably plain prose to create an accessible yet emotively appealing description of the dangers facing democratic nations and why America must help them. The speech follows a simple structure; Truman first covers the crises facing Greece and Turkey before pivoting to a broader justification of the Truman Doctrine.