Harry S. Truman Quotes


I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.


Citations

Truman, Harry S. "Special Message to the Congress on Greece and Turkey: The Truman Doctrine," March 12, 1947. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1947, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963, p. 179.

Related Quotes

The American sense of exceptionalism of the democratic republic we created and the almost messianic duty to extend freedom and democracy throughout the world is actually relatively new in American history. For most American existence, the sense of the desirability of spreading the American freedom was held from the very beginning, but it was very much inhibited by American isolationist tendencies and entanglements on other nation’s affairs.


The United States, since its inception has always had an empathy for other peoples who sought independence, but at the same time we had an early principle of isolationism and not getting involved with quarrels abroad. Also America was inhibited by other unrelated issues from assisting people seeking independence.


Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
  • Born: May 8, 1884
  • Died: December 26, 1972
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: President

Harry S. Truman was an American politician who served as the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53). He served as a United States Senator from Missouri (1935–45) and briefly as Vice President (1945) before he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945 upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was president during the final months of World War II, and approved the plan to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman was elected in his own right in 1948. He presided over an uncertain domestic scene as America sought its path after the war and tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.