80th Birthday Greetings

from President Johnson to Former President Truman

On May 6, 1964, Harry S. Truman was in the Grand Ballroom of the Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, attending a luncheon in his honor when he was informed that he had a telephone call from The White House. In his greetings, President Lyndon B. Johnson shared these words with the 33rd president, who guided the nation and the world through the perilous years following World War II: “When you blow out those candles, Mr. President, I hope you think of all the lights you have turned on during 80 years. They are still burning in Greece and Turkey and Western Europe and the Far East and in the hearts of your countrymen.” Thanks to the archival work of the presidential libraries, we have the full transcript of their phone conversation, which took place two days before President Truman’s 80th birthday. Read More

2022 Harry S. Truman Legacy of Leadership Award

WILLIAM J. BURNS, DIRECTOR, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

The 2022 Harry S. Truman Legacy of Leadership Award was presented on Thursday, April 28, 2022 at Wild About Harry in Kansas City, Missouri.

 
Director Burns’s acceptance remarks at WILD ABOUT HARRY on April 28, 2022 represented only his second public speech as director and came in a week in which the United Kingdom and United States announced further military help for Ukraine.  Read More

Exclusive excerpt from Jeffrey Frank’s newest book

The Trials of Harry S. Truman – sheds light on 75th anniversary of the Truman Doctrine

Jeffrey Frank, author of the bestselling Ike and Dick, returns with the first full account of the Truman presidency in nearly thirty years, recounting how so ordinary a man met the extraordinary challenge of leading America through the pivotal years of the mid-20th century.

The nearly eight years of Harry Truman’s presidency—among the most turbulent in American history—were marked by victory in the wars against Germany and Japan; the first use of an atomic weapon; the beginning of the Cold War; creation of the NATO alliance; the founding of the United Nations; the Marshall Plan to rebuild the wreckage of postwar Europe; the Red Scare; and the fateful decision to commit troops to fight in Korea.

Historians have tended to portray Truman as stolid and decisive, with a homespun manner, but the man who emerges in The Trials of Harry S. Truman is complex and surprising.

The Trials of Harry S. Truman was released on March 8, 2022 and is available wherever books are sold.  Read More

#OTD February 22, 1946  |  The Long Telegram

76 years ago, George Kennan, an American diplomat living in Moscow, sent an 8,000-word telegram to President Truman’s State Department. Today, “The Long Telegram” is regarded as a foundational U.S. document, right up there with the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers and George Washington’s Farewell Address. As a sign of its enduring significance, the telegram’s 75th anniversary appears on top-ten lists of historic moments to note in 2021. Read More

TRU History – Truman Signs Directive 225

We recently heard a remarkable story from an unexpected caller, and we wanted to share it today, in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The caller was a gentleman from Florida. He introduced himself as “Harry” and said that he wanted to make a donation to the STAY TRU Capital Campaign.

“You see, I’m named for Harry Truman,” he told us. “During World War II, my parents were sent to concentrations camps – Auschwitz and Dachau.” Against all odds, they found each other after the camps were liberated, then were moved – along with millions of refugees – into a displaced persons camp. The situation wasn’t hopeful. In Germany alone, there were 7 million refugees with no home to return to. Read More

Inaugural Address

On this day in 1949, Harry S. Truman delivered his Inaugural Address on the U.S. Capitol’s East Portico. More than 100,000 people were gathered in the Capitol Plaza when he began his 2,272-word address with these words… Read More

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

American history is full of improbable coincidences. For instance, on July 4, 1826, America celebrated 50 years of independence and saw two founding fathers draw their final breaths – Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

Last year, in a letter to you, we shared another. February 12, 2021 was not only the 212th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth but also the 75th anniversary of the blinding of Isaac Woodard, a brutal event that, arguably, helped usher in the greatest civil rights progress in this nation since the Emancipation Proclamation. Read More

Harry S. Truman Library and Museum Unveils a Photo Retrospective of the Korean War

A new exhibition at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum offers a poignant look at the first few months of the Korean War through the lens of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Max Desfor. The Forgotten War: Korea 1950 features 36 stunning photographs of the frantic early months of the war from September to December 1950, when the fate of the Korean peninsula was in question.  Read More

Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union

President Harry S. Truman – January 6, 1947

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Veterans Day Values

Lessons from Harry S. Truman in 3 Objects

We can learn a lot from the artifacts of a life well-lived. This Veterans Day, we turned to the Truman Library’s collection and President Truman’s personal possessions to learn what Harry Truman can teach us about service, sacrifice and honor.

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