Evening star., 1947-03-14
Trumon and Monroe


not exaggerated in declaring that
President Truman's message on
Greece and Turkey is as history
making and momentous in it's i'm
plications as the proclamation of
the Monroe Doctrine more than 100
years ago.
Fundamentally, as far as back
ground and principle are concerned,
there is a striking similarity be-
tween the two. The doctrine was
proclaimed by President Monroe in
a message to Congress on December
2, 1923. It was directed against the
Holy Alliance" of Russia, Prussia
and Austria. There was vast
theological gulf between these
powers and young, democratic
America. Believing in the divine
right of kings"-the totalitarian
variant of that day-tney had dedi-
catcd themselves, with French and
Spanish support, to a program
aimed at ending representative
government wherever they could
and overthrowing the independent
countries that had been formed out
of Spain's old colonies in the West
ern Hemisphere.
Faced with this situation, and
inspired and backed by the British,
the United States took decisive
action. Through President Monroe,
all non american powers, particu-
larly the Holy Alliance" were
warned to keep hands off the New
World They were warned not to
interfere with or try to undermine
the New Worlds self-governing
lands They were warned, in full
candor, that 1--WE should consider
any attempt on their part to extend
their system to any portion of this
hemisphere as dangerous to our
peace and security" Our prime in
terest in the matter was self-inter-
est; it was to serve our own indie
pendence and safety by gearing our
foreign policy to the principle that
we ourselves would be imperiled if
we permitted outsiders to wreck
sovereign governments elsewhere in
the Americas.
Now, almost 1875 years later, with
the earth far smaller than it used
to be, President Truman has in
effect extended this principle to the
entire world. Under Monroe Sur
policy was to confine our interests
largely to the Americas and keep
aloof from european powers in
matters relating to themselves" But
today we cannot keep aloof from
them when nearly every matter re-
lateS to us as we'll and when it is
clear that "totalitarian regimes i'm
posed on free peoples, by direct or
indirect aggression, undermine the
foundations of international peace
and hence the security of the
United, States"
Accordingly, in moving to bolster
countries that may be exposed to
Soviet pressure as a result of de-
clining British strength, our funda-
mental motivation remains what it
was in Monroe's day-the motiva-
ton of self interest. To be sure, by
helping the Greeks, the Turks and
others, we may be able to do much
to spread freedom through the
world, though Greece and Turkey
today are not democratic. That is
immensely important, but it is still
a secondary consideration. Our
prime objective is to safeguard our
own free way of life by making sure
that Russia does not beat us in the
game of power politics.
1t is important for us to keep
our thinking straight on this.
Basically, we are in game of power
politics. Stripped to its essentials,
the Truman-expanded Monroe Doc
trine is simply a realistic policy
designed to serve our own interests
until the day comes, if ever, when
the world can enjoy genuine collec-
Iy,if