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Excerpt from "Special Message to the Congress on Greece and
Turkey: The Truman Doctrine, March 12, 1947"

Published in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States:
Harry S. Truman, 1947, published in 1963

"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."

With the British planning to pull out of Greece by March 31, 1947, both President Harry S. Truman (1884–1972; served 1945–53) and Secretary of State George C. Marshall (1880–1959) recognized the urgent need for the United States to step in and to aid the Greek government. Greece had been left destitute after World War II (1939–45). Its infrastructure (railroads, ports, highways, etc.) and economy...