PRESENTED AND INSCRIBED BY PRESIDENT TRUMAN TO HIS SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR FOR CHRISTMAS, 1949
TRUMAN, Harry S. A New Era in World Affairs. Selected Speeches and Statements of Harry S. Truman January 20 to August 29, 1949. Washington, DC: The White House, 1949. Octavo, original brown morocco with Presidential seal on front cover. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
First edition of this rare 1949 Christmas selection of Truman speeches, inscribed by President Truman to his Secretary of Interior: "To Hon. Julius A. Krug with best wishes for a very Merry Christmas. Harry Truman." This is copy number 9 of an unspecified but certainly very small limited edition.
This collection includes Truman's 1949 Inaugural Address and five other important speeches on foreign policy. Topics include the NATO Treaty, the Marshall Plan, and German reunification. "In years to come," Truman said of the Marshall Plan, "we shall look back upon this undertaking as the dividing line between the old era of world affairs and the new—the dividing line between the old era of national suspicion, economic hostility and isolationism, and the new era of mutual cooperation." Recipient Julius Albert Krug (1907-70) began his career in public service as chief power engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority. In 1941 he became chief of the Office of Production Management, which after U.S. entry into the Second World War, became the War Production Board. Truman nominated Krug to head the Department of the Interior in 1946 and Krug served in that role until December 1949.
Text clean, expert restoration to spine ends and corners. A very good presentation/association copy, boldly inscribed by President Truman.