LogosAs a joint address to Congress doubling as an official statement on foreign policy, Truman's speech needed to convey the president's position as clearly and confidently as possible. Sure, ther...

SpeechWe can be certain "The Truman Doctrine" is a speech for a couple of reasons. For starters, Truman opens with an acknowledgement of his audience:Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Cong...

Serious; GraveIn the case of the TD, Truman is the Morgan Freeman of presidents: stoic, reserved, and narrating a potentially life-threatening situation. Only in this case, the struggle is about hu...

Simple and Direct— Plain Speak Without the JestRemember back in our Key Player analysis of Truman, where we gave you a definition for a speaking and delivery style called "plain speak" and lobbed...

The Truman DoctrineAs foreign policy goes, doctrines are kind of a big deal. Basically, a doctrine is a speech or published statement that outlines a speaker's stance on an issue or certain set of...

Let's Get Down to Business (Sentences 1-2) Like we said in our section-by-section summary, the beginning of the speech should really have the opening of Mulan's "I'll Make a Man Out of You" playing...

Remember that super clear, super serious opening about the "grave" situation our country is in? Well, Truman's going to remind us about it in his closing. Except he's so good at conveying how serio...

(4) Base Camp The good news is the Truman Doctrine isn't necessarily a long speech (it's barely six pages if you print it out). And, aside from a few vocab words like "totalitarian," the language i...

In-Text ReferencesHistorical and Political References Charter of the United Nations (78, 79)The foundational treaty of the United Nations, ratified in 1945. The UN Charter laid out a new structure...

Truman's actual middle name was S (both of his grandfathers had names that began with the letter, so in order to avoid playing favorites by picking a single a name, his parents just went with the i...