Political Quotes

“I rise today to endorse the measure to name the State Department's headquarters after one of the great leaders of the twentieth century--President Harry S Truman. Harry Truman symbolized the path that this country took during the ``American Century,'' moving from a small community in the American midwest, to the center of the world stage, where he helped rebuild a devastated Europe and contain Communism. Harry Truman might have stayed on his farm in Independence, Missouri, but World War I intervened and he found himself in Europe as a captain in the Field Artillery. The man whose poor eyesight had kept him out of West Point, was a hero on the battlefields of France. When he returned to Independence--and the beautiful Bess Wallace--his reputation as a leader in battle led to his election as county judge in 1922. In 1935 he was elected Senator from Missouri, and in 1945, he became President upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt. Truman's mother once said of him: (i)t was on the farm that Harry got his common sense. He didn't get it in town. It was this common sense--a hard-eyed pragmatism, really--that made him a great President. Having fought through the First World War in Europe, he was able to understand the ruin that faced Europe after the Second World War. This led to his support of the brilliant plan of his Secretary of State, George Marshall, who rebuilt Europe.…”