A Guide to Primary Resources for U.S. History : The "Truman Doctrine" Address to a Joint Session of Congress Yale University Law School, Avalon Project Wallace Offers An Alternative to Containment George Mason University: "History Matters" These paired resources accomplish two objectives. The first presents the actual text of the famous speech in which President Truman articulated his policy of containment, the "Truman Doctrine." The second presents a lesser-known artifact, the letter written to the President by his Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace urging an alternative policy to containment. Students thus have the opportunity to study both possible approaches to postwar U.S. foreign policy before engaging in further debate about the means, ends, and usefulness of the Truman Doctrine. In preparation for reading the two documents, students can begin the following table by filling out the left column (as a test of prior knowledge and as a practice for making educated guesses). The students can then read the documents and compare their original answers to their answers from the text (in the right column). After students read and discuss the two possible approaches to foreign policy regarding communism, they can create political cartoons or advertisements for each policy (either in support of or against). For a class advanced in writing, the teacher could also ask students to write a newspaper editorial comparing the merits of each policy or to create a written dialogue between Truman and Wallace on containment.

(b) Describe the political differences among the colonists concerning separation from Britain

Paying the Excise Man
Library of Congress

Landing of the Loyalists
Canada’s Digital Collections

Description: These images depict treatment of Loyalists and also the departure of many after the war. Paying the Excise Man is a political cartoon printed in a London newspaper that shows the Sons of Liberty pouring tea down a tarred and feathered tax collector’s throat while Bostonians dump tea into the harbor. This complex cartoon is perfect for analyzing the Loyalist perspective on the Sons of Liberty. The painting Landing of the Loyalists by Henry Sandham (1783) shows some of the tens of thousands of American colonists who emigrated from the United States to the new British colonies of New Brunswick and Upper Canada.

Teaching Tips:

"Do Now" Suggestions

Discuss the methods of the Sons of Liberty. Were they freedom fighters or out of control renegades? Would students in London consider them heroes, why or why not?
Discuss the painting Landing of the Loyalists and why the Loyalists would leave after the war. Discuss why the Patriots felt it necessary to impose such restrictions as freedom of speech and forfeit of property.

Suggestions for Using this Resource as Part of a Lesson

Use these documents to create a fuller picture of the lives of loyalists during and after the war. Discuss the reasons and motivations for staying loyal to England and also the dangers. Invite student to give their opinions about the treatment of Loyalists and the rational behind leaving the new country after the war.
With a partner have students analyze the cartoon, Paying the Excise Man. Have them infer where the cartoon was published and the message of the author. Also have them create the historical context for the image.