Rare original press release issued prior to Truman’s State of the Union
address on January 7, 1953, eight pages both sides, 8 x 14, signed at
the conclusion in fountain pen. With incredible content throughout,
Truman reflects on his presidency and looks toward the future. In part:
“In just two weeks, General Eisenhower will be inaugurated as President
of the United States and I will resume—most gladly—my place as a private
citizen of this Republic. The Presidency last changed hands eight years
ago this coming April. That was a tragic time: a time of grieving for
President Roosevelt—the great and gallant human being who had been taken
from us; a time of unrelieved anxiety to his successor, thrust so
suddenly into the complexities and burdens of the Presidential office.
Not
so this time. This time we see the normal transition under our
democratic system…The President-elect is about to take up the greatest
burdens, the most compelling responsibilities, given to any man. And I,
with you and all Americans, wish for him all possible success in
undertaking the tasks that will so soon be his.
I took the oath
of office on April 12, 1945. In May of that same year, the Nazis
surrendered. Then, in July, that great white flash of light, man-made at
Alamogordo, heralded swift and final victory in World War II—and opened
the doorway to the atomic age…The United States has sought to use its
pre-eminent position of power to help other nations recover from the
damage and dislocation of the war. We held out a helping hand to enable
them to restore their national lives and to regain their positions as
independent, self-supporting members of the great family of nations…
The
world is divided, not through our fault or failure, but by Soviet
design. They, not we, began the cold war. And because the free world saw
this happen because men know we made the effort and the Soviet rulers
spurned it—the free nations have accepted leadership from our Republic,
in meeting and mastering the Soviet offensive…
Meanwhile, the
progress of scientific experiment has outrun our expectations. Atomic
science is in the full tide of development; the unfolding of the
innermost secrets of matter is uninterrupted and irresistible. Since
Alamogordo we have developed atomic weapons with many times the
explosive force of the early models, and we have produced them in
substantial quantities. And recently, in the thermonuclear tests at
Eniwetok, we have entered another stage in the world-shaking development
of atomic energy. From now on, man moves into a new era of destructive
power, capable of creating explosions of a new order of magnitude,
dwarfing the mushroom clouds of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
We have
no reason to think that the stage we have now reached in the release of
atomic energy will be the last. Indeed, the speed of our scientific and
technical progress over the last seven years shows no signs of abating.
We are being hurried forward, in our mastery of the atom, from one
discovery to another, toward yet unforeseeable peaks of destructive
power…The war of the future would be one in which man could extinguish
millions of lives at one blow, demolish the great cities of the world,
wipe out the cultural achievements of the past—and destroy the very
structure of a civilization that has been slowly and painfully built up
through hundreds of generations…
Our ultimate strength lies, not
alone in arms, but in the sense of moral values and moral truths that
give meaning and vitality to the purposes of free people. These values
are our faith, our inspiration, the source of our strength and our
indomitable determination…Let all of us pause now, think back, consider
carefully the meaning of our national experience. Let us draw comfort
from it and faith, and confidence in our future as Americans.” In fine
condition.
This speech marked the important transition from FDR
to Truman to Eisenhower, and continued the tradition begun by Roosevelt
of delivering an oral speech before Congress, rather than a written
message. Along with numerous references to the atomic bomb and nuclear
warfare—one of the most lasting and controversial legacies of Truman’s
administration—this famous State of the Union address also holds an
important allusion to nuclear tests at Eniwetok, which confirmed to the
world that the US had successfully developed the hydrogen bomb.
Reflecting on his achievements while in office and looking towards the
future of American policy and people, this is an extraordinary speech
rife with historic content. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR
Auction COA.
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