President Truman wasted little time in presenting what would become known as the Truman Doctrine, announcing on March 12, 1947 that it was henceforth “the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are  resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures,” i.e. communism—starting with Turkey and Greece (Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, 1963: 178–79).