Truman Doctrine

Harry Truman (1884-1972) was the 33rd President and first proponent of the eponymous “Truman Doctrine.” Truman was born in Missouri and raised in a rural, Baptist family. When the US entered the First World War in 1917, Truman enlisted in the army, gaining the rank of captain and serving until his honorable discharge in 1919. After the war, Truman worked as a County Judge in Jackson County, Missouri before running successfully for election as one of Missouri’s Senators in 1935. He kept this role until 1945, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt chose him as a compromise candidate for the Vice Presidency and as his likely successor given Roosevelt’s ailing health. After an uneventful year as Vice President in which he was generally not included in government decision making, Truman was thrust into power when Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945.

As President, his domestic policy was marked by a continuation of New Deal policies, support for civil rights, changing the footing of the economy from war to consumerism, and clashes with unions. His foreign policy was largely concerned with stopping the spread of communism. His Truman Doctrine speech was an explicit statement of these plans, which became manifest in events such as the support for Greece and Turkey, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, and, most directly, the Korean War.