Saving Freedom

Truman, the Cold War, and the Fight for Western Civilization

By: Joe Scarborough

Narrated by: Joe Scarborough

History called on Harry Truman to unite the Western world against Soviet communism, but first he had to rally Republicans and Democrats behind America’s most dramatic foreign policy shift since George Washington delivered his farewell address. How did one of the least prepared presidents to walk into the Oval Office become one of its most successful?

The year was 1947. The Soviet Union had moved from being America’s uneasy ally in the Second World War to its most feared enemy. With Joseph Stalin’s ambitions pushing westward, Turkey was pressured from the east while communist revolutionaries overran Greece. The British Empire was battered from its war with Hitler and suddenly teetering on the brink of financial ruin. Only America could afford to defend freedom in the West, and the effort was spearheaded by a president who hadn’t even been elected to that office. But Truman would wage a domestic political battle that carried with it the highest of stakes, inspiring friends and foes alike to join in his crusade to defend democracy across the globe.

In Saving Freedom, Joe Scarborough recounts the historic forces that moved Truman toward his country’s long twilight struggle against Soviet communism, and how this untested president acted decisively to build a lasting coalition that would influence America’s foreign policy for generations to come. On March 12, 1947, Truman delivered an address before a joint session of Congress announcing a policy of containment that would soon become known as the Truman Doctrine. That doctrine pledged that the United States would “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” The untested president’s policy was a radical shift from 150 years of isolationism, but it would prove to be the pivotal moment that guaranteed Western Europe’s freedom, the American Century’s rise, and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.

Truman’s triumph over the personal and political struggles that confronted him following his ascension to the presidency is an inspiring tale of American leadership, fierce determination, bipartisan unity, and courage in the face of the rising Soviet threat. Saving Freedom explores one of the most pivotal moments of the twentieth century, a turning point when patriotic Americans of both political parties worked together to defeat tyranny.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

History of Congress

I thought this was more about the machinations of Congress than HST. it was kind of drony to me.

Focus on Greece civil war after WWII

Good book, good narration. Surprised it focused on Greece and Turkey and standing up to Communism there rather than the Korean conflict (which is what I expected). The Truman doctrine became the guiding foreign policy of the US for 70 years. Peace was secured by Truman, Dean Acheson, Vandenberg, Marshall plan and formation of NATO.

A history well worth your time.

It is a story worth knowing. This book will also help America stop our drift toward Autocracy pushed by the January 6, 2021 insurrection attack on the Capitol Building.

Wish Trump had read this history

Joe Scarborough serves up the history of why America needs NATO and our alliance with western democracies. Harry Truman was a great man who rose to fight communism, while Trump failed to understand the threat from Russia.

An important book about the American Presidency

Joe Scarborough’s book is an important history of the Truman Doctrine which was Harry Truman’s successful plan to help Greece and Turkey and ultimately other nations defeat the plans of the Soviet Union to infiltrate and conquer American allies greatly vulnerable because of destruction and ruin cause by World War II. The doctrine was a bipartisan plan that helped the United States and the free world for decades and ultimately ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Joe Scarborough is far from a professional historian. He is no Erik Larson or David McCullough, but he blends Truman’s life with his own experiences in Congress and ultimately shows the distinctions between a Trump foreign policy and its failures compared with President Truman’s success. While the book is not chronological, it is because Scarborough concentrates such as the United Nations, the end of World War II, Truman’s election as President as well as his early life. One may have wished for less detail about the opposition and support of many congress people to the plan, but Scarborough’s descriptions of the great players like David Atchison, General George Marshall and Senator and Arthur Vandenberg. This is a fine book about an important part of American presidential history.