Harry S. Truman

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Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953).

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Sourced

  • If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word.
  • The British, Chinese, and United States Governments have given the Japanese people adequate warning of what is in store for them. We have laid down the general terms on which they can surrender. Our warning went unheeded; our terms were rejected. Since then the Japanese have seen what our atomic bomb can do. They can foresee what it will do in the future. The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost. I urge Japanese civilians to leave industrial cities immediately, and save themselves from destruction. I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb. Its production and its use were not lightly undertaken by this Government. But we knew that our enemies were on the search for it. We know now how close they were to finding it. And we knew the disaster, which would come to this Nation, and to all peace-loving nations, to all civilization, if they had found it first. That is why we felt compelled to undertake the long and uncertain and costly labor of discovery and production. We won the race of discovery against the Germans. Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans. We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan's power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us.
    • Excerpts from a radio address to the American public, August 9, 1945. (full text)
  • 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.
  • Had ten minutes conversation with Henry Morgenthau about Jewish ship in Palistine [sic]. Told him I would talk to Gen[eral] Marshall about it. He'd no business, whatever to call me. The Jews have no sense of proportion nor do they have any judgement on world affairs. Henry brought a thousand Jews to New York on a supposedly temporary basis and they stayed. When the country went backward-and Republican in the election of 1946, this incident loomed large on the D[isplaced] P[ersons] program. The Jews, I find are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as D[isplaced] P[ersons] as long as the Jews get special treatment. Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog. Put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, Baptist he goes haywire. I've found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes. Look at the Congress[ional] attitude on D[isplaced] P[ersons]-and they all come from D[isplaced] P[erson]s.
  • They are wrong and we are right and I'm going to prove it to you!
    • Acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, 1948, speaking about Republicans
  • Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.
    • Lecture at Columbia University, 28 April 1959
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Attributed

  • A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years.
  • Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it.
  • I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
  • I never gave anybody hell. I just told the truth and the Republicans thought it was hell.
  • If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em.
  • If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
  • Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.
  • Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.
  • It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.
  • It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
  • My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference.
  • The buck stops here.
  • The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.
  • Whenever a fellow tells me he's bipartisan, I know he's going to vote against me.
  • I am Cyrus. I am Cyrus.
    • Upon being attributed as the man who helped create the state of Israel.
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External links

Wikipedia has an article about:
Wikisource has original works written by or about Harry S. Truman.

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