(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 is fairly clear and straightforward.

What might be a little tricky, though, is the political and historical context surrounding the speech—remember: this isn't just a speech about Greece and Turkey, but the Cold War and the U.S. in the Cold War as a whole. Lucky for you, though, the history buffs at Shmoop have broken it all down and made it as painless as possible—because that's what we do best.