The Truman Doctrine stated that the United States would support "free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." Specifically, the doctrine was a political response to Soviet aggression in Europe, illustrated through the communist movements in Iran, Turkey and Greece. As a result, American foreign policy towards Russia shifted, as George F. Kennan phrased it, to that of containment.
U.S. President Harry S. Truman made the proclamation in an address to the U.S. Congress on March 12, 1947 amid the crisis of the Greek Civil War (1946-1949). The doctrine was specifically aimed at assisting governments resisting communism. Truman insisted that if Greece and Turkey did not receive the aid that they needed, they would inevitably fall to communism with the result being a domino effect of acceptance of communism throughout the region.
Truman signed the act into law on May 22, 1947 which granted $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece.
The Truman Doctrine also contributed to America's first involvements in what is now the nation of Vietnam. Truman attempted to aid France's bid to hold onto its Vietnamese colonies. The United States supplied French forces with equipment and military advisors in order to combat a young Ho Chi Minh and communist revolutionaries. Truman's policy of containment was the first American involvement in the Vietnam War.
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