Farewell Address

Here is a link to both audio and text of President Truman's Farewell Address given a week before the inauguration of "Ike".

The Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine was the foreign policy laid out by President Truman post WWII. It's policies were laid out before Congress on March 12, 1947, in what many consider Truman's most famous speech. It was geared toward anti-communist measures that involved great amounts of American military and economic aid to European countries in order to keep them free of Communist influence.

The speech can be found here.

To the Point

Truman many times favored short, to the point style when giving speeches. It has been said that Truman was content with just numbers. His 1949 Inagurual address, nicknamed the "Point Four Inaugural" is one example. Below are a few links to speeches that utilized his to-the-point use of numbers.

1949 Inagural (also given below)

"Twenty-One point message.

10 point message sent to Congress--this link describes the message Truman sent to Congress regarding civil rights issues and what the response was to his frank plan.

State of the Union Addresses

The writing process for a State of the Union by Truman's team was a disciplined and lengthy process. First a theme and an outline were developed. Each section of the speech was compiled usually by a different idividual who had expertise in that certain field with support from agency contacts. The number of words allocated to each section was then determined according to what needed to be emphasized.

It is interesting to note that the President didn't see the speech until usually the fifth draft, in which he was allowed to give his two cents.

Here is a link to all the State of the Union addresses given by Truman during his 8 years of Presidency.

Truman's Spiritual Input

One place in which Truman inserted his own style and where his understated eloquence did appear was in his use of spiritual and moral language. Born in Missouri, Truman was raised in the Bible-Belt as a faitful Southern Baptist. Elsey, one of Truman's speechwriters, commented that this was an area where Truman "led and the staff followed. The staff did not deliberately compose phrases or paragraphs of this sort, and inject them. This was very much a part of President Truman's own personal belief and feeling."

If the staff didn't take the initiative to include such references, Truman often took the liberty to include them himself to the final drafts. You can see in many of his speeches the strong reference to his faith in God. One speech that was noted for that was his inaural address. Here is a link that focuses on some of these references in his inaugural address. Here is a link to a list of quotes from Truman speeches which place an emphasis on the great importance faith in God played in Truman's life and how he ran the country.

Harry's Inner Circle of "President Assistants"

President Truman had a unique relationship with his speechwriters, in which he formed close relationships with them. He often referred to them as his "special counsel", and they would attend daily staff meetings, travel with the President to vaction destinations, and sit in on Truman's famous poker games. They knew the Presidents policies and rhetoric very well because they worked and lived on a very personal basis with Truman. The team consisted of many people. There were a couple main speechwriters, followed by "specialist" writers who had expertise in such areas as economic affairs, and even more editors and "tweakers" to the finished drafts. In all, it is important to note that Truman had the final say and many times would change whatever he thought was not something he would favor or say.

Below are a few of the profiles for some of the advisors (speechwriters) for President Truman:

Samuel Irving Rosenman
~wikipedia

Clark Clifford:
~wikipedia
~recognition of Israel

~Truman Library File

George Elsey:

~NPR radio address

~Truman Library File

"Whistle-Stop" Campaign

Below is a list of different links to a number of different whistle-stop speeches President Truman made during his 1948 campaign. He took a train around the country, stopping, many times, at relatively small towns to make short addresses. It was during these speeches that the President's personality really shone through, as he was granted more say in the speechwriting process. These speeches, in contrast to formal addresses, were energizing, partisan, and sometimes followed outlines rather than a strict script. This allowed Truman to pencil in"off-the-cuff" remarks in the margins just before speeches. These speeches also built upon the President's remarks from previous whistle-stops, and followed a formula for Truman to easily adapt to each location. They contained four parts which were: (1) Friendly local reference, (2)That a vote for Wallace or Thurmond was a vote for the Republican ticket in a race against Republicans and Democrats, (3) that the Republicans serve only the rich and the Democrats serve all the people, and (4) that this campaign is whether you will have enought to eat and wear, and the effect the election will have on world peace.

Whistle-Stop Speeches: try to see if you can spot the four parts illustrated!

Here is a speech given at his first stop in Oklahoma.

Here is another he gave at a stop in Missouri.

Here is one last link to one of his final whistle-stop speeches in his home state of Missouri...there is a link within the document to hear the audio.

This link here is to a video montage of the Truman whistle-stop campaign. It helps to illustrate the environment in which Truman and his staff prepared speeches, and how he addressed them.

Here is a link to a short film by PBS that portrays Truman's whistle-stop campaign.