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Harry S. Truman

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,000.00 - 1,500.00 USD
Harry S. Truman

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Auction Date:2016 Dec 07 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
TLS, one page, 7.25 x 10.5, personal letterhead, May 3, 1961. Letter to Herbert S. Bailey, Jr., the director and editor at the Princeton University Press, in full: “Thank you very much for your thoughtfulness in sending me a copy of ‘Japan Subdued: The Atomic Bomb and the End of the War in the Pacific’ by Herbert Feis. I more than appreciate it and hope I will have an early chance to read it.” In fine condition.

Truman’s reference to the Feis book recalls one of history’s most famous ‘unsent’ presidential letters. In his book, Feis, a special consultant to three secretaries of war, queried whether a combination of blockade and further conventional bombing could have supplanted the use of an atomic weapon to defeat the Japanese. Following the release of unclassified documents, Feis struggled even further with the newfound evidence and drastic recourse, and sent Truman a letter requesting details into the final decision to destroy Hiroshima. Incensed by Feis’ ‘egghead contemplations,’ Truman handwrote a scathing reply letter, one which was ultimately never sent.