Press Release Announcing U.S. Recognition of Israel

About the Author

Harry S. Truman, thirty-third president of the United States, was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri, but settled with his family in nearby Independence, Missouri. He learned to farm from his father and remained very close to his mother throughout her life. Truman attended public school and received religious instruction at a Presbyterian Church Sunday school. He was the only twentieth-century president not to have a college degree, but as a young man he was drawn to the study of history, learned to play the piano, and was already attracted to politics, aligning himself with the Democratic Party. He also worked as a timekeeper for the Santa Fe Railroad.

In 1905 Truman enlisted in the Missouri National Guard and served for six years despite poor eyesight, which prevented him from going to West Point to pursue a military career. While he was in the National Guard, he met both Edward Jacobson, a Jewish man with whom he later entered into a business partnership, and James M. Pendergast, a scion of the leading political family in Kansas City at that time. When the United States entered World War I, Truman reenlisted and served as an artillery officer in France. He proved to be a natural leader and exhibited great courage in active combat. Later, he was promoted to the rank of colonel in the Missouri Guard.

Following the war, Truman returned to Independence and married Bess Wallace. The couple had one child, Margaret. He also went into the men's clothing business with Jacobson, but the business failed, so he turned his attention full-time to politics. Truman's friendship with Jacobson, however, remained intact, and Jacobson later played a role as an unofficial adviser to Truman, urging him to recognize the Israel many years later.

Truman was elected as a family court judge in Jackson County in 1922. During the Great Depression he received a position with the assistance of Pendergast family, which supported his successful run for the U.S. Senate in 1934. Despite corruption charges against the Pendergasts, Truman emerged as a viable candidate and remained in the Senate until he was chosen as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's vice presidential running mate in 1944, notwithstanding his professed lack of interest in the job. The Roosevelt-Truman ticket won handily in the Electoral College by a vote of 432 to 99.

On April 12, 1945, after Truman had served less than three months as vice president, Roosevelt died, and Truman was sworn in as president of the United States. Thrust onto the stage of world politics, Truman was called upon to authorize the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan and help plan for transitioning the United States and much of the world to a peacetime economy. Following in the footsteps of his fellow Democrat Woodrow Wilson, he supported the creation of the United Nations and later enunciated the Truman Doctrine to contain the spread of Communism. He also oversaw the founding of the U.S. Air Force, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. At home, much of his domestic agenda, including his “Fair Deal” and civil rights advocacy work, was generally frustrated by a Republican Congress that had gained power in 1946.

Moreover, Truman's decision to recognize Israel in 1948 took place not only in the context of a busy White House but during a heated primary and presidential campaign, which featured his famed “whistle stop” tour. Against the odds, Truman won the top spot on the Democratic ticket and then, in a classic upset victory, retained the White House. Among his first acts was to give Israel full de jure recognition, although his support for the new Jewish state was far from unequivocal. Truman's second term included the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the establishment of Communist China, McCarthyism, and the Korean War.

Truman left public office in 1953 and returned to his wife's family home in Independence, Missouri. He lived a modest life, helped establish the Truman Library, and wrote his immensely popular memoirs. Harry Truman died on December 26, 1972. His wife, Bess, died ten years later. Both were buried in the courtyard of his presidential library.