NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
History called on Harry Truman to unite the Western world against
Soviet communism, but first he had to rally Republicans and Democrats
behind America's most dramatic foreign policy shift since George
Washington delivered his farewell address. How did one of the least
prepared presidents to walk into the Oval Office become one of its most
successful?
The year was 1947. The Soviet Union had moved from being America's
uneasy ally in the Second World War to its most feared enemy. With
Joseph Stalin's ambitions pushing westward, Turkey was pressured from
the east while communist revolutionaries overran Greece. The British
Empire was battered from its war with Hitler and suddenly teetering on
the brink of financial ruin. Only America could afford to defend freedom
in the West, and the effort was spearheaded by a president who hadn't
even been elected to that office. But Truman would wage a domestic
political battle that carried with it the highest of stakes, inspiring
friends and foes alike to join in his crusade to defend democracy across
the globe.
In Saving Freedom, Joe Scarborough recounts the historic forces that
moved Truman toward his country's long twilight struggle against Soviet
communism, and how this untested president acted decisively to build a
lasting coalition that would influence America's foreign policy for
generations to come. On March 12, 1947, Truman delivered an address
before a joint session of Congress announcing a policy of containment
that would soon become known as the Truman Doctrine. That doctrine
pledged that the United States would "support free peoples who are
resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
pressures." The untested president's policy was a radical shift from 150
years of isolationism, but it would prove to be the pivotal moment that
guaranteed Western Europe's freedom, the American Century's rise, and
the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.
Truman's triumph over the personal and political struggles that
confronted him following his ascension to the presidency is an inspiring
tale of American leadership, fierce determination, bipartisan unity, and
courage in the face of the rising Soviet threat. Saving Freedom
explores one of the most pivotal moments of the twentieth century, a
turning point when patriotic Americans of both political parties worked
together to defeat tyranny.
