<P> The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy created to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War . It was first announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947 and further developed on July 12, 1948 when he pledged to contain Soviet threats to Greece and Turkey . American military force was usually not involved, but Congress appropriated free gifts of financial aid to support the economies and the militaries of Greece and Turkey . More generally, the Truman Doctrine implied American support for other nations threatened by Soviet communism . The Truman Doctrine became the foundation of American foreign policy, and led, in 1949, to the formation of NATO, a military alliance that is still in effect . Historians often use Truman's speech to date the start of the Cold War . </P> <P> Truman told Congress that "it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures ." Truman reasoned that because the totalitarian regimes coerced free peoples, they represented a threat to international peace and the national security of the United States . Truman made the plea amid the crisis of the Greek Civil War (1946--49). He argued that if Greece and Turkey did not receive the aid that they urgently needed, they would inevitably fall to communism with grave consequences throughout the region . Because Turkey and Greece were historic rivals, it was considered necessary to help both equally even though the threat to Greece was more immediate . Historian Eric Foner argues the Truman Doctrine "set a precedent for American assistance to anticommunist regimes throughout the world, no matter how undemocratic, and for the creation of a set of global military alliances directed against the Soviet Union ." </P>

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