Saving Freedom
Saving Freedom: Truman, The Cold War, and the Fight for Western Civilization, the fourth book by MSNBC Cable news host and former U.S. Representative Joe Scarborough, recounts the historic forces that navigated Harry Truman to begin America's historic battle against the threat of Soviet Communism and how a little known president built an enduring coalition that would use the Truman Doctrine to guide American foreign policy for close to half a century.
Synopsis
In the midst of a Greek Civil War which pitted free Greek forces against a Communist insurgency, President Harry S. Truman addressed Congress on March 12, 1947, to define an historic policy to contain and control the spread of Soviet communism. The policy would soon become known worldwide as the Truman Doctrine, and pledged that the United States would “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” Truman's new doctrine was a groundbreaking departure from a century and half of American isolationism. Ultimately, the Truman Doctrine would signal the beginning of a new American role that would ultimately guarantee the freedom of Western Europe, and witness the rise of the "American Century", a historical period of American strength that would result in the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.Though initially considered "timid", and known to many even in his own party as the ‘Missouri Compromise,’ Democrats and nations worldwide would soon learn "there was steel in the man from the Midwest." Scarborough heaps lavish praise on the Truman Doctrine as “a profound transformation of America’s conception of itself and its role in the world” and as a policy that would make Harry Truman “the greatest foreign policy president of the postwar era.” Despite its eventual success, initial opposition to the plan was strong from traditionally isolationist Republicans on the right, and liberal Democrats on the left, who were critical of a plan that would send aid to Greece, a country headed by a President many viewed as autocratic.
The novel chronicles and approves of Truman's controversial but bold decisions to pursue the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended WWII. Scarborough praised Truman's success in forcing the Soviets to eventually withdraw their support for Communist insurgencies in both Turkey and Greece when Great Britain could no longer afford to provide financial assistance to support the military efforts of the two nations. Scarborough's chapter, Eleven Minutes, details Truman's support of Israel in an era when anti-Semitism was still present and a Jewish state was a questionable prospect. Demonstrating strong leadership, despite considerable opposition from Congress and the State department headed by George Marshall, Truman made the strong move to become one of the first countries to support the new state of Israel in May 1948.
Equally important was Truman's decision to defend South Korea from the Communist aggression of the North, a move consistent with the intent of the Truman Doctrine. In a bold move in 1948, he submitted the first comprehensive legislation on civil rights, issuing Executive Order 9981 to start racial integration in the military and federal agencies.