Summarize.
Truman opens by addressing the Congress with his belief that the national security is threatened, and one part of this also concerns Greece and Turkey. The Greek government had 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 believes the United States must be the one to supply the assistance Greece so clearly needs. The United Nations would not be able to supply the immediate action needed, and no other democratic country is willing or able. Though it has made mistakes, Truman insists that no government is perfect but we should supervise the usage of any assistance we give to them. Truman also believes Turkey needs support in order to modernize themselves, support they have asked for but that only the US could give them.
Truman believes 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. He believes the United States must be the one to assist free people in making their own choices, not having a choice forced upon them. Should Greece be taken over by an armed minority, Turkey would surely fall tot he same fate, and soon after the entirety of the middle east, and it would be disastrous not only for them but for the world.
On that note, Truman asks Congress to take immediate and resolute action to assist Greece and Turkey, and investment that would surely be more than worth it by saving free people from totalitarian rule.
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