My grandfather Harry S. Truman, who was sworn in as president after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, had inherited a worldwide catastrophe. Although World War II would end in the first four months of his presidency, as the leader of the most powerful country on Earth, he faced an enormous challenge to rebuild the war-ravaged world. “Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now,” he told the White House press corps on April 13, 1945, the day after his tenure began.
Rebuilding the economies of former World War II allies and enemies alike while countering Soviet expansionism and preventing a third world war became Truman’s primary foreign policy objective.
The empires that had shaped the global order for centuries were crumbling. Much of Europe and Asia lay in ruins, ravaged by starvation and economic collapse. And a new global threat, communism, was on the rise. Rebuilding the economies of former World War II allies and enemies alike while countering Soviet expansionism and preventing a third world war became Truman’s primary foreign policy objective: “I want peace and I’m willing to fight for it.”
After he was elected to the presidency in 1948, my grandfather’s first major act was to direct the State Department to open negotiations for a trans-Atlantic alliance. Thus was born the most significant result of Grandpa’s foreign policy strategy — America’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
When 12 countries signed the treaty in Washington, D.C., on April 4, 1949, Truman said, “We hope to create a shield against aggression and the fear of aggression.” Truman created the postwar order.
As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the largest peacetime military alliance in the world, we find ourselves in a position that my grandfather would recognize. Totalitarianism is on the rise. Democracy and peace are under attack. A mobilized Russia, under the dictatorial Vladimir Putin, is waging war against Ukraine and is…
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