LAD #34 Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine was an address of the foreign policy and the national security of the United States, and also Turkey and Greece. The United States received an urgent appeal from Greece for economic and financial assistance, if they did not receive aid it seemed as though they would not survive as an independent nation. Greece was never a wealthy country and it lacked many natural resources, and it has “suffered invasion, four years of cruel enemy occupation, and bitter internal strife”; it was reported that the “Germans had destroyed virtually all the railways, roads, port facilities, communications, and merchant marine. More than a thousand villages had been burned. Eighty-five per cent of the children were tubercular. Livestock, poultry, and draft animals had almost disappeared. Inflation had wiped out practically all savings.” Tragic conditions, a militant minority and human exploitation have made economic recovery seem impossible. The Greeks were asking for help to resume purchases of the bare essentials that were unavailable at the time. The Greeks also asked the United States for political aid “the assistance of experienced American administrators, economists and technicians to insure that the financial and other aid given to Greece shall be used effectively in creating a stable and self-sustaining economy and in improving its public administration”. Truman tells the joint session of Congress that the aid the United States has already provided for Greece is inadequate and that the United States, as a self governing democracy, must do more for Greece. The British had been helping them previously but they can no longer offer economic support after March 31st.
Turkey is another nation that Truman mentions “as an independent and economically sound state is clearly no less important to the freedom-loving peoples of the world than the future of Greece.” Turkey was better off than Greece but Truman still urged that Turkey is also in dire need of American support. Turkey is seeking aid for the purpose of effecting that modernization necessary for the maintenance of its national integrity to preserve the order in the Middle East. Truman says: “We are the only country able to provide that help.” “The disappearance of Greece [and Turkey] as...independent state[s] would have a profound effect upon those countries in Europe whose peoples are struggling against great difficulties to maintain their freedoms and their independence while they repair the damages of war.” Truman then asks Congress for “assistance to Greece and Turkey in the amount of $400,000,000 for the period ending June 30, 1948”and “$350,000,000 for the prevention of starvation and suffering in countries devastated by the war.” He also asks Congress for commodities, supplies, and equipment for the two nations, and to authorize the detail of American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey.

LAD # 33 FDR's FIrst Inaugral Address

Before Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, the economy was spiraling downwards at a freakish pace. Banks were failing, businesses were going under, and Americans who were once living comfortable were then living on the streets. Hoovervilles were constructed outside major cities and the poor wandered the dirty cities looking for work. Wilson could do nothing but sit in horror. Although once FDR was elected, he boosted the spirits of the American people by his first inaugural address. He begins his speech stating that "our distress comes from no failure of substances." He says this to show the people this is not something they can not control. "We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply." He continues to say that the money changers that had caused the failure of the banks had " fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit." This means that FDR has faith in the country that they work together and overcome the greedy in order to become a economically stable nation again. FDR also calls for action at that very moment to help the struggling economy. He says that we must "recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms." Instead of Wilson's ideas of letting the people solve the problems of the nation, he decides to take charge and tell people what to do so the nation can be fixed.

LAD # 32 Kellogg Briand Peace Pact

The act declared a “renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy” to promote the welfare of mankind. With the renunciation war as an instrument of national policy, peaceful and friendly relations between nations may be perpetuated and it will instate union between the civilized nations of the world in a common renunciation of war as an instrument of their national policy”. Any nation that resorts to war to promote its national interests shall not receive the benefits of the treaty. The treaty declared condemnation of “recourse to war for the solution of international controversies” and it was to be implemented as soon as possible. Afghanistan, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Kingdom of the Serbs, Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Siam, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Panama were all signers of the Act. “Convinced that all changes in their relations with one another should be sought only by pacific means and be the result of a peaceful and orderly process, and that any signatory Power which shall hereafter seek to promote its national interests by resort to war a should be denied the benefits furnished by this Treaty”.