PRESIDENT HARRY S TRUMAN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 08/19/1957 - HFSID 4616

HARRY S TRUMAN
President Truman signs a typed letter to a North Carolina couple, thanking them belatedly for some clippings
Typed Letter signed: "Harry Truman", 1 page, 7¼x7¾. Independence, Missouri, 1957 August 1. On personal letterhead to Mr. & Mrs. Gate Cate, Tryon, North Carolina. In full: "Dear Mr. & Mrs. Garth [sic], I more than appreciated your letter of July 19th, and I apologize for the length of time it has taken me to tell you so. Your letter became mislaid among a great many other papers that accumulated during my recent move from one office to another and just now came to light again. Thank you for your thoughtfulness in enclosing the clippings from the London Times and the Christian Science Monitor. They are very welcome additions to my files. Thank you, too, for your good wishes. They gave me quite a lift. Sincerely yours". Harry S Truman (1884-1972) had been Vice President for only 82 days when he became the 33rd President of the U.S. (1945-1953) upon Franklin D. Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945. Faced with the ordeal of ending WWII, Truman oversaw the surrender of Germany (May 7) and ordered the atomic bombings on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). He fought the Cold War with the Truman Doctrine, a policy granting Greece and Turkey $400 million in economic and military aid to help them fight Communist aggression. By the end of 1945, Truman had introduced economic measures that would become part of his Fair Deal program. As a result, the minimum wage was increased from 40 to 75 cents an hour through an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and Social Security benefits were extended to include approximately ten million more people. During his second term, Truman ordered U.S. forces into action when North Korean troops invaded American-supported South Korea. The Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, was dedicated in July 1957. The "recent move from one office to another" mentioned in the letter was the relocation of Truman's office from the Kansas City Federal Reserve building to the new library. Irregular lower edge. Mailing fold touches "y" of Harry. Lightly soiled at upper left corner. Otherwise, fine condition.