1951 State of the Union Address

Last updated
1951 State of the Union Address
DateJanuary 8, 1951 (1951-01-08)
Time1:00 p.m. EST
VenueHouse Chamber, United States Capitol
Location Washington, D.C.
Coordinates 38°53′23″N77°00′32″W / 38.88972°N 77.00889°W / 38.88972; -77.00889
Type State of the Union Address
Participants Harry S. Truman
Alben W. Barkley
Sam Rayburn
Previous 1950 State of the Union Address
Next 1952 State of the Union Address

The 1951 State of the Union Address was given by Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, on Monday, January 8, 1951, to the 82nd United States Congress in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives. [1] It was Truman's sixth State of the Union Address. Presiding over this joint session was House speaker Sam Rayburn, accompanied by Vice President Alben W. Barkley in his capacity as the president of the Senate.

Truman began his speech by discussing the ongoing Korean War:

As we meet here today, American soldiers are fighting a bitter campaign in Korea. We pay tribute to their courage, devotion, and gallantry. Our men are fighting, alongside their United Nations allies, because they know, as we do, that the aggression in Korea is part of the attempt of the Russian Communist dictatorship to take over the world, step by step. Our men are fighting a long way from home, but they are fighting for our lives and our liberties. They are fighting to protect our right to meet here today—our right to govern ourselves as a free nation. [1]

After delivering a speech largely devoted to foreign policy, Truman concluded his message with these words:

Peace is precious to us. It is the way of life we strive for with all the strength and wisdom we possess. But more precious than peace are freedom and justice. We will fight, if fight we must, to keep our freedom and to prevent justice from being destroyed. These are the things that give meaning to our lives, and which we acknowledge to be greater than ourselves. This is our cause—peace, freedom, justice. We will pursue this cause with determination and humility, asking divine guidance that in all we do we may follow the will of God. [1]

This State of the Union saw a record-level of security personnel as soldiers with fixed bayonets surrounded the United States Capitol while Truman was speaking, and members of Congress were asked for identification in order to enter the premises. [2]

Republican Senator Robert A. Taft effectively gave a response to Truman's State of the Union Address during a speech to the National Press Club. Taft accused Truman of giving only "yes or no" choices on foreign policy. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mutual Security Act</span> American foreign aid law

The Mutual Security Act of 1951 launched a major American foreign aid program, 1951–61, of grants to numerous countries. It largely replaced the Marshall Plan. The main goal was to help underdeveloped US-allied countries develop and to contain the spread of communism. It was signed on October 10, 1951, by President Harry S. Truman. Annual authorizations were about $7.5 billion, out of a GDP of $340bn in 1951, for military, economic, and technical foreign aid to American allies. The aid was aimed primarily at shoring up Western Europe, as the Cold War developed. In 1961 it was replaced by a new foreign aid program, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which created the Agency for International Development (AID), and focused more on Latin America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dean Acheson</span> American politician and lawyer (1893–1971)

Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American politician and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truman's main foreign policy advisor from 1945 to 1947 during early years of the Cold War. Acheson helped design the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He was in private law practice from July 1947 to December 1948. After 1949 Acheson came under political attack from Republicans led by Senator Joseph McCarthy over Truman's policy toward the People's Republic of China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Truman Doctrine</span> Anti-Soviet American Cold War foreign policy

The Truman Doctrine is an American foreign policy that pledges American "support for democracies against authoritarian threats." The doctrine originated with the primary goal of countering the growth of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. It was announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947, and further developed on July 4, 1948, when he pledged to oppose the communist rebellions in Greece and Soviet demands from Turkey. More generally, the Truman Doctrine implied American support for other nations threatened by Moscow. It led to the formation of NATO in 1949. Historians often use Truman's speech to Congress on March 12, 1947, to date the start of the Cold War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert A. Taft</span> American politician (1889–1953)

Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. was an American politician, lawyer, and scion of the Republican Party's Taft family. Taft represented Ohio in the United States Senate, briefly served as Senate majority leader, and was a leader of the conservative coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats who blocked expansion of the New Deal. Often referred to as "Mr. Republican", he co-sponsored the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947, which banned closed shops, created the concept of right-to-work states, and regulated other labor practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Containment</span> American Cold War foreign policy against the spread of communism

Containment was a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II. The name was loosely related to the term cordon sanitaire, which was containment of the Soviet Union in the interwar period.

A United States presidential doctrine comprises the key goals, attitudes, or stances for United States foreign affairs outlined by a president. Most presidential doctrines are related to the Cold War. Though many U.S. presidents had themes related to their handling of foreign policy, the term doctrine generally applies to presidents such as James Monroe, Harry S. Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, all of whom had doctrines which more completely characterized their foreign policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time</span>

"The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy" is General Omar Bradley's famous rebuke in his May 15, 1951 Congressional testimony as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the idea of extending the Korean War into China, as proposed by General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of the U.N. forces in Korea before being relieved of command by President Harry Truman on April 11, 1951.

United States non-interventionism primarily refers to the foreign policy that was eventually applied by the United States between the late 18th century and the first half of the 20th century whereby it sought to avoid alliances with other nations in order to prevent itself from being drawn into wars that were not related to the direct territorial self-defense of the United States. Neutrality and non-interventionism found support among elite and popular opinion in the United States, which varied depending on the international context and the country's interests. At times, the degree and nature of this policy was better known as isolationism, such as the interwar period, while some consider the term isolationism to be a pejorative used to discredit non-interventionist policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kennedy Doctrine</span> Foreign policy doctrine

The Kennedy Doctrine refers to foreign policy initiatives of the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, towards Latin America during his administration between 1961 and 1963. Kennedy voiced support for the containment of communism as well as the reversal of communist progress in the Western Hemisphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry S. Truman</span> President of the United States from 1945 to 1953

Harry S. Truman was an American lawyer and politician who was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States senator from Missouri from 1935 to 1945 and briefly in 1945 as the 34th vice president of the United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Assuming the presidency after Roosevelt's death, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan in the wake of World War II to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and established both the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. He proposed numerous liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the conservative coalition that dominated Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2007 State of the Union Address</span> Speech by US president George W. Bush

The 2007 State of the Union Address was given by the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush, on January 23, 2007, at 9:00 p.m. EST, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives to the 110th United States Congress. It was Bush's sixth State of the Union Address and his seventh speech to a joint session of the United States Congress. Presiding over this joint session was the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, accompanied by Dick Cheney, the vice president, in his capacity as the president of the Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidency of Harry S. Truman</span> U.S. presidential administration from 1945 to 1953

Harry S. Truman's tenure as the 33rd president of the United States began on April 12, 1945, upon the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and ended on January 20, 1953. He had been vice president for only 82 days when he succeeded to the presidency. Truman, a Democrat from Missouri, ran for and won a full four-year term in the 1948 presidential election, in which he narrowly defeated Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey and Dixiecrat nominee Strom Thurmond. Although exempted from the newly ratified Twenty-second Amendment, Truman withdrew his bid for a second full term in the 1952 presidential election because of his low popularity. He was succeeded by Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Relief of Douglas MacArthur</span> U.S. President Trumans dismissal of Gen. MacArthur, 1951

On 11 April 1951, U.S. president Harry S. Truman relieved General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of his commands after MacArthur made public statements that contradicted the administration's policies. MacArthur was a popular hero of World War II who was then commander of United Nations Command forces fighting in the Korean War, and his relief remains a controversial topic in the field of civil–military relations.

The 1946 State of the Union Address was given by the 33rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, on Monday, January 21, 1946, to the 79th United States Congress. It was written by Samuel Rosenman and is notable for being the longest State of the Union message at the time: the written speech was sent to Congress, not orally given, and was 27,465 words long. The address combined Truman's economic report with state of the union information regarding returning to a peace economy after the end of World War Two, foreign policy in Europe and the admission of Hawaii into the United States.

The presidency of Harry S. Truman began on April 12, 1945, when Harry S. Truman became the 33rd president upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and ended on January 20, 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winston Churchill's address to Congress (1952)</span> Cold War–era speech in Washington, D.C.

Winston Churchill's address to Congress of January 17, 1952 was the British Prime Minister's third and last address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, following his World War II-era speeches in 1941 and in 1943. Winston Churchill's three speeches to Congress was the record for most speeches by a foreign leader until Benyamin Netanyahu made his fourth address to the U.S. national legislature in 2024.

The 1954 State of the Union Address was given by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, on Thursday, January 7, 1954, to the 83rd United States Congress in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives. It was Eisenhower's second State of the Union Address. Presiding over this joint session was House speaker Joseph W. Martin Jr., accompanied by Vice President Richard Nixon, in his capacity as the president of the Senate. This address was broadcast live on both radio and television.

The February 1953 State of the Union Address was given by newly inaugurated president Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, on Monday, February 2, 1953, to the 83rd United States Congress in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives. It was Eisenhower's first State of the Union Address. Presiding over this joint session was House speaker Joseph W. Martin Jr., accompanied by recently inaugurated Vice President Richard Nixon in his capacity as the president of the Senate. This address was broadcast live on both radio and television.

The 1949 State of the Union Address was given by Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, on Wednesday, January 5, 1949, to the 81st United States Congress in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives. It was Truman's fourth State of the Union Address. Presiding over this joint session was House speaker Sam Rayburn, accompanied by President pro tempore Kenneth McKellar, in his capacity as the acting president of the Senate since the office of Vice President was vacant.

The 1948 State of the Union Address was given by Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, on Wednesday, January 7, 1948, to the 80th United States Congress in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives. It was Truman's third State of the Union Address. Presiding over this joint session was House speaker Joseph W. Martin Jr., accompanied by President pro tempore Arthur Vandenberg, in his capacity as the acting president of the Senate since the office of Vice President was vacant due to Truman's ascendance to the presidency before the ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Even though Truman's previous 1947 State of the Union Address had been televised, this address was only broadcast nationwide over the radio.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Truman, Harry S. (January 8, 1951). "Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  2. Montgomery, Ruth (January 9, 1951). "Guard for Truman Sets a Record". Daily News. New York, New York. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
  3. Bell, Jack (January 9, 1951). "Few Alternatives For Congress on Foreign Policies: Answers President's State of Union Talk". Ironwood Daily Globe. Ironwood, Michigan. Retrieved March 15, 2024. Much of Taft's address was aimed in obvious reply to President Truman's State of the Union message.